Name: Daniel Jacob Radcliffe
AKA: Natural Born Actor
Parents: Alan Radcliffe and Marcia Gresham
Nickname: Dan
Date of Birth: July 23, 1989
Place of Birth: Fulham in London, England
Education: Attends an all-boys private school

Some Interesting Facts about Dan

  • In an interview with the BBC Monday, Dan said that he got his first acting job when he persuaded his parents to submit Polaroid photos of him to the BBC when he heard about auditions for a new version of David Copperfield. He said he had previously wanted to try out for a role on an ITV production of Oliver Twist. "My mum and dad never thought it was a very good idea, " he said, but added, "I've always wanted to act since I was five." He got the role. This was in 1999. This was followed in 2001 by his first film appearance, as Mark Pendel in The Tailor of Panama. "The best thing about filming is going to all the different locations and staying in hotels, " he told the BBC. "They have Sky [satellite television], and I haven't got that at home."

  • It was while Dan was filming The Tailor of Panama that Chris Columbus, the director of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, asked him to come and audition, having seen him in David Copperfield. However, Dan's parents thought that the project was too big -- that their son's life would change too much by landing such a large role. Ironically, he was at a theatre one night with his father, watching a play, when he was approached by the producer, David Heyman, during the intermission. He later called the Radcliffes to ask if Dan could meet, regarding the role in Harry Potter. After the meeting, he was asked to audition, and by this time, Dan had convinced his parents to let him try out for the role.

  • Although Chris Columbus had auditioned other young actors, no one had been able to make him forget Dan's haunting quality as young David Copperfield. Dan beat thousands of hopefuls to secure the role he was quite definitely born to play, as the director said: "Dan walked into the room and we all knew we had found Harry."

  • Dan was so delighted when he heard he had won the much coveted role in Harry Potter that he didn't believe it was true. He says, "My dad answered the phone, and a few minutes later told me I was going to play Harry Potter. We all cried. That night I had to wake my dad to ask him if it was a dream."

  • JK Rowling said of the portrayal of Harry: "I just love Daniel's face. He's such an endearing face . . . It was a very hard part to cast . . . as I am sure people will remember because it was in the press a lot . . . they just couldn't find Harry. It was just turning into some sort of children's version of trying to find Scarlett O'Hara. And they found Dan in the most extraordinary way. David Heyman, the producer, went to the theatre one night with Chris Columbus, the director, and they literally sat down next to Dan." Rowling said that Daniel had done a great job in a difficult part. "It's a harder part than Ron or Hermione because Harry, I think, is more a book character. He's very introspective. He's the readers' eyes on to the world . . . He wears the glasses, and that's not easy to convey . . . for, I believe, any actor . . . let alone an actor of 11 or 12. But what Daniel's got, I think, is the ability to listen and react very well on screen . . . Dan nailed it. And I am very pleased."

  • Harry Potter And The Sorceror's Stone is the first of J.K. Rowling's series of books about the much loved wizard, and the film has made Daniel famous in more ways than one - he succeeded in getting his name mentioned in his school assembly. He remembers, "It was only the third time I've been mentioned in assembly. One was bad and the other was scoring a hat-trick for the B team."

  • Three-hour tutor sessions left plenty of time to goof off. Running around the set of Hogwarts’ Great Hall, the kids traded good-natured rumors. Daniel said, “Kids on the set would scream at me, ‘She likes you! She likes you!’”

  • In November 2002 Dan had a role in the play The Play What I Wrote directed by Kenneth Branagh; a production well known for its "surprise guest".

  • Dan refuses to watch his movie debut in 2001's Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone because he's embarrassed by how immature he seems in it. The 15-year-old star - who plays the boy wizard - accidentally caught a glimpse of himself in the 2001 movie while changing TV channels, but immediately turned it off because he hated the sound of his voice. He explains, "I haven't seen the first one in a few years. I don't want to watch it. I won't go back while I'm doing the fourth one. Although having said that, I was flicking through the channels one day and I saw a bit of it on TV and I genuinely thought there was something wrong with the sound because my voice was too high and I seemed so young. I might watch it one day for fun - although I'm not sure how much fun it would be because I'm really self-critical."

  • Dan plays the bass guitar and once had a bass lesson from Prisoner of Azkaban co-star Gary Oldman. A passionate guitar rock music fan, some of his favourite bands include The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Libertines, The Strokes, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

  • Dan has also been a supporter of various charities. His favorate charity is Demelza House Children's Hospice in the UK which is the only children's residential hospice in Kent, East Sussex and South London providing a wide range of services to life-limited children. Click here for details on how to make a donation.

  • Dan was known as quite the little prankster on the Potter set. Costar Coltrane tells the Chicago Sun-Times the boy wizard would take his cell phone and reprogram it until "suddenly all my text messages were coming out in Turkish." He also recalls that Radcliffe liked to wig out the makeup crew by showing up on the set with bloody plaster on his face, telling them he'd gotten into a fight the night before.

  • The 1957 black and white movie classic, "12 Angry Men" is Dan's all-time favourite movie

  • Dan supports Fulham Football Club

  • Dan's first acting role was as a monkey in a school play. "I had floppy ears and orange makeup and I had to wear tights. I think I went on and danced around for about 40 seconds or something. I hope nobody ever digs up a picture of me in that, because it would be embarrassing."


    Quotable Quotes

  • "I think it's going to be fun and I'm just going to enjoy it. I think it's going to be great because if you're famous you get the opportunity to inspire people."

  • "I'm never going to think of myself or put emphasis on the fact that I'm famous. I'm just going to know it. I'm not going to talk about it because people who do are often not very nice people."

  • "I have thought a lot about being recognized, and I think it will be quite cool," he said. The twelve-year-old, apparently counseled about the capriciousness of fame, added: "I'm just going to enjoy it. After all, I might do this film and then disappear, or something might go horribly wrong and I'll never act again. Or in a couple of years I might have changed so much that I look wrong for the part -- even though Harry grows with the books. So I just want to enjoy it while I can."

  • "I don't know how much money I have, and I don't need to know, because I'm only a kid"

  • "I was on MTV once and there was this girl in her 20's standing outside in a Harry Potter towel that read 'Nothing comes between me and Harry Potter'. It was really weird."

  • Dan's wish for his 15th birthday: "I would like to have a drum set like Lars Ulrich from Metallica - that´s cool!" (rock on \m/)

  • "I like science and I love gym. Oh, and I like art, but I'm really bad at it. I'm just a terrible drawer. I can't draw a circle. Even with a ruler, I can't draw a straight line."

  • "I'm not clumsy, I'm just accident prone."

  • "I've never been one of the cool people at school, but then again, I don't get the people who are cool. It's not that I don't like then, it's just that they don't interest me."

  • "What is a normal childhood really? I mean, I don't think there's any such thing, I love making the films, I love doing them. I don't think I will ever regret it because I think in many ways, I've had an even better childhood than a lot of people. But we'll have to see. Ask me in 20 years."

  • "Me and Harry are not very good with women. I've got better now. But I think any man ever who says he has never had an awkward moment with a girl is a liar. He's either a liar or he's delusional."


    Career Achievements

  • 2005 - Saturn Award - Nominated for Best Performance by a Younger Actor for HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban

  • 2005 - Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards - Nominated for Best Young Actor for HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban

  • 2003 - Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards - Nominated for Best Debut for HP and the Chamber of Secrets

  • 2003 - Saturn Award - Nominated for Best Performance by a Younger Actor for HP and the Chamber of Secrets

  • 2002 - Saturn Award - Nominated for Best Performance by a Younger Actor for HP and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • 2002 - Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards - Nominated for Best Young Actor for HP and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • 2002 - Empire Awards, UK - Nominated for Best Newcomer for HP and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • 2002 - Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards - Nominated for Best Newcomer for HP and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • 2002 - MTV Movie Awards - Nominated for Breakthrough Male Performance for HP and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • 2001 - Golden Apple - Won Youth Male Discovery of the Year


    Source: IMDb, Wikipedia, Tribute and from various articles and interviews