5 memorable Daniel Radcliffe roles beyond Harry Potter

Daniel Radcliffe wasn't a first-time performer when he came into the spotlight as Harry Potter. He'd already played the titular role in David Copperfield on the BBC and even was recommended by colleague Maggie Smith based on that experience. We certainly didn't see the last of him at Platform 9 3/4 in the eighth film. At the time of the series' end, the Washington Post asked, "Who could have predicted that Radcliffe, Grint and Watson would turn out to be good actors?" Let's look at where his career path has gone since then with a few favorites.

1. Equus (2007)

I remember opening a copy of Vogue magazine and seeing Harry Potter embracing a horse. As this was not what I usually found in my favorite fashion publication, I read on and discovered that Daniel Radcliffe had been cast in a West End production of this 1973 play.

The role of Alan Strang is a famous one, as the young man is treated psychiatrically after attacks on six horses. TalkinBroadway said that Radcliffe performed "admirably, never once looking or sounding like the Harry Potter he's been portraying on scren for seven years" and praised his "showing you Alan's darker crippling without demanding your pity or encouraging your disgust." The fact that his psychiatrist was played by Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon) was a fascinating choice.

2. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (2011)

If Harry Potter and a horse was surprise, you can imagine what it felt like to tune into the 65th Annual Tony Awards and see him in a terrible plaid coat, singing a classic Broadway musical song. I had read earlier that Daniel is, like me, dyspraxic and therefore has trouble with coordination and balance. So when I saw him dancing and singing "The Brotherhood of Man" from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, I was intrigued.

The musical satirizing a self-help book on climbing the corporate ladder is about a young man who rises high and nearly plunges to the depths of disaster through ambition. Daniel played that very man on Broadway and was nominated for a Grammy Award as a result.

3. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

Wait, is that someone using Polyjuice Potion? No, in 2022, we saw Daniel Radcliffe with the iconic curly hair and outsized glasses of parody musician Weird Al Yankovic.

Is the movie true to the life story? Debatable and that's the point. Is Daniel Radcliffe fully committed to making it seem like that IS how everything happened? Absolutely. Weird is intentionally as uncanny as the music that made Yankovic famous and Daniel is great in it. He also got nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a BAFTA Award as a result.

4. The Woman in Black (2012)

As a lover of horror movies and ghost stories alike, I looked forward to The Woman in Black and saw it as soon as it came to theaters Daniel Radcliffe played the part of a grieving widower who was raising his young son and also trying to settle an estate in a town cursed by calamity.

I'll admit that this isn't my favorite spooky movie, but Daniel had to carry most of the movie's plot on his own merits. His inescapable melancholy was what made the film work.

5. Merrily We Roll Along (2023)

Anyone who loves musical theater should know Stephen Sondheim. He was the genius behind plays like Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, and even wrote lyrics for West Side Story. Merrily We Roll Along is a 1981 musical by Sondheim that had a successful Broadway revival. It tells the story of three friends over 20 years in reverse chronology and Daniel Radcliffe played musical collaborator Charley Kringas.

The role demands a range of emotional types for one character and a portrayal that shows the nature of someone at different ages Radcliffe took home a Tony Award for his turn in the musical and it was well deserved.