Daniel Radcliffe’s parents initially refused to let him audition for the role, but a 

 

chance meeting with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone director Chris 

 

Columbus led to an audition. Those involved with the film were in 

 

overwhelming agreement that Radcliffe would make the perfect Harry, and the 

 

books' legions of fans seemed to agree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only child of a literary agent and a casting director, Daniel Radcliffe has 

 

achieved international stardom for his work in the Harry Potter films, 

 

adaptations of the beloved best-sellers by J. K. Rowling. With the series' end 

 

in 2011, the young actor now works to establish himself as more than just the 

 

bespectacled wizard in training.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Released in November 2001, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone proved to 

 

be a box-office smash. Audiences adored Radcliffe as the lead character, an 

 

orphaned boy who attends a special school for wizards in training. And the 

 

fever surrounding the series simply seemed to grow with each new film.

 

The eight-film series spanned more than a decade of Radcliffe's life. These 

 

movies actually show him growing up from a tween to a young man. And they 

 

provided him with the opportunity to work with many distinguished actors, including Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter. Radcliffe finds Oldman's and Rickman's careers particularly  inspiring, telling Back Stage that "They never, ever stop trying to get better and working with people they think are going to bring something new out of them."