Daniel Radcliffe said he felt “incredibly fortunate” to have met and worked with Harry Potter costar Robbie Coltrane who died Friday at 72 years old.
Daniel Radcliffe reflects on how “incredibly fortunate” he felt to have worked alongside the late Robbie Coltrane while filming the Harry Potter movies.
According to 33-year-old Radcliffe, Coltrane died Friday at the age of 72. PEOPLE obtained a statement from Radcliffe. He said he was “one of the funniest people I’ve ever met” and kept us laughing as children on the set.
Radcliffe says, “I have fond memories of him keeping our spirits up on (2004’s Harry Potter & the) prisoner of Azkaban), when we were all hiding from torrential rain for hours in Hagrid’s hut and he was telling jokes and stories to keep our morale up.”
He continues to rave about how he was “incredibly fortunate” to have met and worked with Coltrane, saying that he is “very sad” that he has passed.
Radcliffe concluded, “He was an amazing actor and a beautiful man.”
Belinda Wright, Coltrane’s friend and agent, confirmed that Coltrane had died on Friday. Wright called Coltrane “a unique talent.”
Wright said in part, “He will likely be remembered best for decades to come in the Harry Potter movies , which was a role that brought joy to children as well as adults all over the globe, prompting a stream a fan letters every week for more than 20 years.”
She said, “For me personally, I will remember him as an abidingly faithful client… as well as being wonderful actor. He was forensically smart… brilliantly wiitty.” “And after 40-years of being proud to have been called his agent, he will be missed.”
Although the cause of death for the actor was not immediately known, Deathline reports that the actor “had been in ill-health for the past two years” and that he died in Larbert (Scotland) in a nearby hospital.
Coltrane’s Harry Potter character Hagrid is the Hogwarts Keeper of Keys and Grounds. He is the first person Harry ( Daniel Radcliffe ) meets in the Wizarding World before he sets off to Hogwarts. He becomes a mentor for the boy wizard.
Coltrane reflected on his time in Hagrid’s role in the films between 2001 and 2011.
“I think it’s the end of an era. He said that it’s 10 years in my life and my children have grown up through it.”
He continued, “The legacy of movies is that my generation will show them their children, so you can be watching it in fifty years’ time, simple,” he said in the special.
“I won’t be there, sadly, but Hagrid will. Coltrane agreed.