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Daniel Radcliffe

(1989-)

Daniel Radcliffe is a Jewish English actor, best-known for his role as the main character in the Harry Potter film series.

He was born Daniel Jacob Radcliffe on July 23, 1989, in West London, England. His father, Alan George Radcliffe, is a Protestant originally from Northern Ireland, and his mother, Marcia Jeannie Gresham, is Jewish and was raised in South Africa (her family's surname was anglicized from "Gershon").

In December 1999, Radcliffe made his acting debut at age ten in the BBC One's televised two-part adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield, portraying the title character as a young boy. In 2000, producer David Heyman asked Radcliffe to audition for the role of Harry Potter for the film adaptation of the best-selling J.K. Rowling book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States). Radcliffe was selected for the role and the movie was released in 2001 and grossed $974 million in ticket sales. Radcliffe went on to star in all of the remaining film adaptations of Rowling's Harry Potter series.

In 2011, Radcliffe made his debut as J. Pierrepont Pinch in the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, a role previously held by Broadway veterans Robert Morse and Matthew Broderick. He performed with the cast of the musical at the Tony Awards that year.

Radcliffe was awarded the 2,565th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in a ceremony scheduled for November 12, 2015.


Sources: Internet Movie Database, Wikipedia
Vaitsblit, Hannah. “Daniel Radcliffe, you're a star,” Tablet Magazine (October 30, 2015)