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Daniel Radcliffe, You’re a Star

The man of spells himself, Harry Potter, is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—and he’s only 26

by
Hannah Vaitsblit
October 29, 2015
Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images
Daniel Radcliffe at the premiere of 'Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban' in London, England, 2004.Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images
Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images
Daniel Radcliffe at the premiere of 'Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban' in London, England, 2004.Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images

Daniel Radcliffe—aka Harry Potter aka The Boy Who Lived aka The Chosen One—who once described himself as a “not-religious-in-the-least-proud-to-be-Jewish” atheist, will soon find his name on the 2,565th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, reported Mashable on Thursday. Which leaves HP diehards like myself—I mean, I loyally waited around just to stand a whole five yards away from Radcliffe himself after watching him prance around in Broadway’s 2011 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying—wondering: What the heck took so long?!

“Fans of all ages have been waiting in anticipation of Daniel’s star ceremony,” said “Queen of the Walk of Fame” producer Anna Martinez, according to a statement on the Walk of Fame’s website. “They are constantly asking when it will happen. Finally, we have him here in Hollywood, and we are proud to dedicate his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.” (In fact, it was Martinez who had previously hinted that the upcoming ceremony to be announced would be “spellbinding.”)

Although the man of spells himself, Harry Potter, is not Jewish, Radcliffe certainly is, by way of his mother, a South African-born Jew who hails from a family of East-Central European Jews. In 2009, Radcliffe, 26, told The Guardian, “I’m an atheist, but I’m very proud of being Jewish. It means I have a good work ethic, and you get Jewish humour and you’re allowed to tell Jewish jokes.” He even intimated to the fact that his writer pseudonym—under which he published several poems in Rubbish magazine in 2007—is a Jew-y Jacob Gershon (“Jacob [being] his middle name, Gershon the Jewish version of Gresham, his mother’s anglicised maiden name.”).

The Walk of Fame dedication ceremony, honoring Radcliffe and his yiddishe kop, is scheduled for the morning of November 12 outside Hollywood Boulevard’s Dolby Theatre. You can watch a live stream here.

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Hannah Vaitsblit is an intern at Tablet.