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| Daniel Radcliffe |
Daniel Radcliffe has contributed to many charities, including Demelza House Children's Hospice and The Trevor Project. He has also made public service announcements for the latter. In 2011 Daniel Radcliffe was awarded the Trevor Project's "Hero Award".
Early life and education
Daniel Radcliffe was born on 23 July 1989 in West London, England, the only child of Alan George Radcliffe, a literary agent, and Marcia Jeannine Gresham (née Marcia Gresham Jacobson), a casting agent who was involved in several films for the BBC, including The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Walk Away And I Stumble. Radcliffe's mother is Jewish and a native of Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex; his father, originally from Northern Ireland, is Protestant. Radcliffe first expressed a desire to act at the age of five, and in December 1999, aged ten, he made his acting debut in the BBC One's televised two-part adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield, portraying the title character as a young boy.
Daniel Radcliffe was educated at two independent schools for boys: at Sussex House School, a day school in Cadogan Square in Chelsea in London, followed by the City of London School, a day school on the North Bank of the River Thames in London's financial district, known as the City of London.
Following the release of the first Harry Potter movie, attending school became hard for Daniel Radcliffe, with some fellow pupils becoming hostile. Radcliffe said it was people just trying to "have a crack at the kid that plays Harry Potter" rather than jealousy. As his acting career began to consume his schedule, Radcliffe continued his education through on-set tutors. He admitted he was not very good at school, considered it useless, and found the work to be "really, really difficult"; however, he did achieve A grades in the three A-levels that he sat in 2006, but then decided to take a break from education and did not go to college or university. Part of the reason was that he already knew he wanted to act and write, and that it would be difficult to have a normal college experience. "The paparazzi, they’d love it," he told Details magazine in 2007. "If there were any parties going on, they’d be tipped off as to where they were".
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| Daniel Radcliffe |
Radcliffe has stated he is an atheist, and that he is "very proud of being Jewish". In 2008, he revealed that he suffers from a mild form of the neurological disorder dyspraxia. The motor skill disorder sometimes gets so bad that he has trouble doing simple activities, such as writing or tying his own shoelaces. "I was having a hard time at school, in terms of being crap at everything, with no discernible talent," Radcliffe commented. In August 2010, he stopped drinking alcohol after finding himself becoming too reliant on it.
Radcliffe is a supporter of the Liberal Democrats and has voiced support for the party's leader, Nick Clegg, pledging to spend more time in the UK to help increase his profile to a younger audience. At the age of 16, Radcliffe became the youngest non-royal ever to have an individual portrait in Britain's National Portrait Gallery (NPG). On 13 April 2006 his portrait, drawn by Stuart Pearson Wright, was unveiled as part of a new exhibition opening at the Royal National Theatre; it was then moved to the NPG where it resides.
He is a fan of underground and punk rock music, and is a keen follower of cricket, including cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Writing short stories and poetry is also a passion. In November 2007 Radcliffe published several poems under the pen name Jacob Gershon — a combination of his middle name and the Jewish version of his mother's maiden name Gresham — in Rubbish, an underground fashion magazine. He enjoys a close friendship with his fellow Harry Potter co-stars Tom Felton and Emma Watson, and is tight-knit with his family, whom he credits for keeping him grounded.
Speaking out against homophobia Radcliffe began filming public service announcements in 2009 for The Trevor Project, promoting awareness of gay teen suicide prevention. He first learned of the organisation while working on Equus on Broadway in 2008 and has contributed financially to it. "I have always hated anybody who is not tolerant of gay men or lesbians or bisexuals. Now I am in the very fortunate position where I can actually help or do something about it," he said in a 2010 interview. In the same interview, he spoke of the importance of public figures advocating for equal rights. Radcliffe considers his involvement to be one of the most important things in his career and, for his work for the organisation, he was given the "Hero Award" in 2011.
Radcliffe has supported various charities. He designed the Cu-Bed for Habitat's VIP Kids range (a cube made of eight smaller ones which can be made into a bed, chaise-longue or chair) with all the royalties from the sale of the bed going directly to his favourite charity, Demelza House Children's Hospice in Sittingbourne, Kent. Radcliffe has urged his fans to make donations, in lieu of Christmas presents to him, to the charity's Candle for Care program. In 2008 he was among several celebrities who donated their old glasses to an exhibit honouring victims of the Holocaust. During the Broadway run of Equus he auctioned off a pair of jeans he wore in the show for "thousands of dollars", as well as other items worn in the show, for the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS "a New York-based nonprofit HIV/AIDS grant-making organization". He has also donated money to Get Connected UK, a London-based free confidential national helpline for troubled youth.
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| Daniel Radcliffe |
Radcliffe was considered to be the richest teenager in England later that year. In February 2010 he was named the sixth highest paid Hollywood male star and placed at number five on Forbes's December list of Hollywood's highest-grossing actors with a revenue of US$780 million, mainly due to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being released that year. Despite previous predictions that Radcliffe would have amassed £70m by the time the Harry Potter series concluded, the actor was reported to only have a wealth of £28.5 million in 2010. This still makes him richer than Princes William and Harry. Despite his wealth, Radcliffe has said he does not have expensive tastes and that his main expense is buying books: "I read a lot." He also stated that money would never be the focus of his life.
Filmography
2001 The Tailor of Panama
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2007 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2007 December Boys
2009 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1
2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
2012 The Woman in Black