British Actor Radcliffe, 11, Chosen to Play Harry Potter

The big screen has found its Harry Potter: 11-year-old British actor Daniel Radcliffe. The young actor will play the boy wizard in the movie adaptation of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” due in theaters next year.

Radcliffe portrayed young David in a recent BBC adaptation of “David Copperfield.” He also appears in the upcoming John Boorman movie “The Tailor of Panama.”

It was widely believed--and printed in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper--that 13-year-old Londoner Gabriel Thomson had been tapped to play Harry.

Director Chris Columbus and producer David Heyman said Monday they also have cast two British newcomers to play Harry’s best friends at Hogwarts school. Ten-year-old Emma Watson will play Hermione, and 11-year-old Rupert Grint will play Ron. Both have acted in school plays.

The casting call for Harry and other characters from J.K. Rowling’s best-selling books had children from Britain and elsewhere sending in audition tapes to Warner Bros.

“We saw so many enormously talented kids in the search for Harry,” Columbus said in an announcement on Warner’s official Internet Web site, https://harry potter.warnerbros.com. “The process was intense, and there were times when we felt we would never find an individual who embodied the complex spirit and depth of Harry Potter. Then, Dan walked into the room, and we all knew we had found Harry.”

The Potter books follow the exploits of an 11-year-old boy who discovers he inherited magical powers from his parents, a pair of wizards killed by a powerful enemy.