Daniel Radcliffe: Snapshot

Name
Daniel Radcliffe
Date of Birth
July 23, 1989
Birth Place
London, England
Of all the J.K. Rowling fans in the world, none should be bigger than Daniel Radcliffe. Playing boy wizard Harry Potter, he's become one of the most recognizable – and richest – young actors of his time.

Radcliffe's five film portrayals of the bespectacled orphan have made him a box office regular since 2001 (the series has tallied a worldwide box office of more than $4.47 billion). Audiences have grown up with Radcliffe, who has recently graduated to non-Potter roles, including dropping his robe for a London (and Broadway) stage revival of Equus. But Potter fans need not worry: Radcliffe still has two more Potter films before his days at Hogwarts are a mere memory in the Pensieve.

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Daniel Radcliffe: Five Fun Facts

  1. Daniel Radcliffe would rather play cricket for England than be a movie star.
  2. Daniel Radcliffe says he's missed two days of work in seven years of Harry Potter films – for gastric flu.
  3. Daniel Radcliffe doesn't like to watch himself in roles. When he sees himself, he thinks, "'God you've got a stupid mouth,' anything, just totally negative criticism, basically," he told the AP.
  4. Daniel Radcliffe's best friend on set "is a 41-year-old guy who works in costume and has got two kids," he told The Guardian.
  5. In the Harry Potter films, Daniel Radcliffe was "always getting in trouble for scratching my forehead and knocking the scar off," he told the Newark Star-Ledger.

Daniel Radcliffe: Biography

1999

Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Does Copperfield

Acting casts its spell early on Daniel Radcliffe, the son of Alan, a literary agent, and Marcia, a casting director. At 10, he clinches the lead role in a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, alongside veteran costars Bob Hoskins (left) and Maggie Smith. "My mum sent in a Polaroid of me to the BBC, because I've always wanted to act since I was five," he tells the Press Association in 2000. "My mum and dad never thought it was a very good idea. So I went for about five auditions and then I got the part."

circa 2000

Daniel Radcliffe

Becoming Harry Potter

Chris Columbus, who's signed on to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (based on author J.K. Rowling's book about a boy wizard named Harry Potter), sees Radcliffe in the Dickens film. "This is what I want," Columbus (right) recalls to the Independent on Sunday in 2007. "This is Harry Potter." Radcliffe is in the bath when he hears he'd been cast. "I just cried – it was so cool," he tells the Ottawa Sun.

2000s

Daniel Radcliffe

Growing Up Hogwarts

Radcliffe spends the next several years on Potter sets with Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, and Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger (left). British acting veterans, including Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith and Emma Thompson, portray various Hogwarts professors or stalwarts. "If childhood is being surrounded by people who you love being around and being incredibly happy, then I absolutely have had that," he tells the Hartford Courant.

Read More on Daniel Radcliffe's Life

Photo Credits

Top Left: Harry Borden/Corbis

BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): amazon.com; Dave Caulkin/AP; Avik Gilboa/WireImage

Edited by Janet Mock

Celebrity Central