Daniel Radcliffe is EW's Entertainer of the Year!: His 10 Most Memorable Moments

EW just named Daniel Radcliffe the number one Entertainer of the Year. Congrats, Daniel!

-Lucia Peters, BettyConfidential.com

It's that time again! No, not holiday time (though we're in full holiday swing here at BettyConfidential). No, not sexytime, either (save that for the bedroom). It's December, so that means it's almost the end of the year! And that, of course, means year-end celebration posts. So let's kick this year off with a little help from none other than Daniel Radcliffe!

You see, Entertainment Weekly just named DanRad Entertainer of the Year-quite the honor! The title has previously been held by the likes of Taylor Swift, Sandra Bullock, and Robert Downey Jr., among others, so he's in good company. Congrats, Daniel! It's been a busy year for you, and you definitely deserve it. In honor of the occasion, let's take a look at some of Daniel's most notable moments throughout the years, shall we?

1. Daniel's Acting Debut

Little Dan made his professional acting debut at the age of 10 in a 1999 BBC adaptation of theCharles Dickens novel David Copperfield. He played the young version of David in the first part of the two-part miniseries. The all-star cast also included Maggie Smith as Betsey Trotwood; little did Daniel know that this would be the first of many, many collaboration with the future Professor MacGonagall. Awww, he's so tiny!

2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Ah, the moment when the world at large was first introduced to the young Mr. Radcliffe! Legend has it that when Chris Columbus, the director of Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets, saw a video of David Copperfield, he pointed at Daniel and said, "This is what I want. This is Harry Potter." The very first image most Potter fans can recall seeing of the film is the one pictured above: Dan as Harry with his snowy owl Hedwig on his arm. Perfect? Yes.

3. Equus

Daniel, wisely, knew that if he wasn't careful, he would only ever be thought of as Harry Potter-not something that bodes well for a career later on down the line. So in 2007, he took a gamble and signed on to play troubled teen Alan Strang in a high-profile revival of Peter Shaffer's playEquus. The role required him not only to perform onstage-something he'd never done before, and unlike many young British actors, hadn't trained for-but even more nerve-wracking, to play a nude scene. A lengthy one. Eight times a week. Naturally Potter fans flocked en masse to both London's West End and Broadway to see him and his Potter co-star Richard Griffith; but he garnered some nice critical reviews as well.

4. The Leather Vest Photo Incident

The infamous Leather Vest Photo Incident came hot on the heels of Equus. Some thought it was hot; some thought it was tacky; but either way, it forced people to see that Daniel was growing up. Risky? Maybe, but like Equus, it ended up paying off.

5. Grauman's Chinese Theater

2007 was a big year for Daniel: He and Potter co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were immortalized at Grauman's Chinese Theater in July, planting their hand, foot, and, yes, wand prints in a square of cement on Hollywood Boulevard. Now that's how you know you've made it.

6. "I Lost My Virginity to an Older Woman"

This one happened in 2008, right around the same time that images of Emma Watson drinking a Corona surfaced and people started realizing that Matthew Lewis had suddenly gotten hot. Daniel was 19 when he revealed in an interview with Details magazine that he had lost his virginity at 16 (the legal age of adulthood in Britain), and to an older woman at that. Gasp! Scandal!... Only not so much, because he chose not to make a big deal out of it. It's hard enough growing up under the constant scrutiny of the public, so good for him for keeping a level head.

7. The Simpsons

If having your hand prints plastered in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater is how you know you've made it in high-brow Hollywood, then making a guest appearance on The Simpsons is how you know you've made it in low-brow popular culture. Hilariously, Dan voiced "Edmund" in the parody of Twilight that made up part of 2010's Halloween episode. Take that, Robert Pattinson!

8. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

After he wrapped shooting on the final Harry Potter installment, Dan took another theatrical gamble, starring as J. Pierrepont Finch in the current Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The verdict? Sure, he can carry a tune just fine, but whatreally surprised everyone was his dancing. Little did we know that the Boy Who Lived is actually quite the twinkletoes! Though he was snubbed at the Tony Awards, he earned nominations for Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle awards. And he sure looked like he was having a blast doing it!

9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

With the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 on July 15, 2011, audiences across the globe witnessed the end of an era. Though admittedly most of us could have done without the slightly goofy epilogue, for the most part, the series ended with an appropriate bang, allowing Daniel and his cast mates to make a graceful exit. Indeed, both parts of Deathly Hallowswere the best pieces of filmmaking to have come out of the series in a long time, and Daniel's performance was his best yet. Thanks for the good times, Harry. We'll miss you.

10. Life After Potter: The Woman in Black

While some might have taken a little time off after finishing such a mammoth undertaking as theHarry Potter series, Daniel wasted no time lining up his post-Potter career. His next project? A film adaptation of Susan Hill's novel The Woman in Black . Dan began shooting The Woman in Black in September of 2010; it's due for release in February of 2012. Daniel isn't a kid anymore, so appropriately, he plays a lawyer and young father tasked with settling the legal affairs of a recently deceased woman-and who suddenly finds himself in a ghost story because of it. Spooky.



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