"I was in the bath at the time" Radcliffe says.
"And my dad came running in and said,
'Guess who they want to play Harry Potter?'
And I started to cry.
It was probably the best moment of my life"
Daniel Radcliffe quoted from "Premiere" magazine, November 2001
Daniel Radcliffe was born on July 31, 1989 in England. He prefers to be called Danny. He wanted to be an actor since he was 5 years old, but his parents were apparently never too keen on the idea. However, Danny "wore them down with enthusiasm" and landed his first major role in the BBC-TV adaptation of "David Copperfield" (1999) where he played young David. Danny can also be seen in the movie "The Tailor of Panama" (2000), a spy thriller that released in the spring of 2001. But Danny zoomed into the international spotlight when he won the much-coveted role of Harry Potter in the highly anticipated film adaptation of the hugely successful "Harry Potter" book series. Danny had quite a field of competition for the Harry Potter role. Among those rumored to be in that field were Haley Joel Osment and Frankie Muniz. According to BBC News, "The youngster survived five auditions and had no trouble making friends on the set." The first of the Harry Potter movies, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" opened in theaters on November 16, 2001.