Hardy, Robert -
Harris, George -
Harris, Richard -
Harris, Seán -
Hedwig -
Heilman, Elizabeth E. -
Henderson, Shirley E. -
Herdman, Joshua -
Heyman, David -
Highfield, Roger -
Houghton, John -
HP Education Fanon, Inc.
Hardy, Robert
Born in October 1925 in Gloucestershire, England, Robert Hardy was cast as
Cornelius Fudge in the
Harry Potter films.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0362735/
Harris, George
Born in October 1949 in Grenada, West Indies, George Harris was cast as
Kingsley Shacklebolt in the
Harry Potter films.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364711/
Harris, Richard (1930 - 2002)
Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore
in the first two films, was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1930. Information
about Harris's film career can be found at:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001321/
Shortly before the London premiere of
CS/f,
Harris died of Hodgkin's disease on 25 October 2002.
Additional biographical details can be located at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harris_(actor)
Harris, Seán
Harris was Rowling's best friend from her days at
Wyedean Comprehensive School and owner of a turquoise
Ford Anglia that obviously provided the inspiration for
Arthur
Weasley's car. She has stated that much of her friend Seán
can be found in the character of Ron Weasley,
and she dedicated CS to:
"Seán P. F. Harris, Getaway Driver and Foulweather Friend."
Rowling remembers times when she and Seán would drive off in the
Anglia and sit under the Severn Bridge, talking about life.
Rowling and Sean talking about their friendship:
JKR: It was at Wydean that I met Sean, which has been a very important friendship in my life - huge friendship in my life. I always felt a bit of an outsider and that might, perhaps explain why Sean and I were so close because he came in late, like me he didn't have a local accent, and so I think, to an extent, we both felt like outsiders in the place, and that probably formed quite a big bond between us. So this is Sean, to whom the second Harry Potter book is dedicated, and Ron owes a fair bit to Sean. I never set out to describe Sean in Ron, but Ron has a Sean-ish turn of phrase. He's always there when you need him, that's Ron Weasley. Sean was the first of my friends to pass his driving test. And, um, he had this old Ford Anglia, old claptrap Ford Anglia - turquoise and white - which is now quite famous as the car that the Weasleys drive. Well I was obviously going to give the Weasleys Sean's old car. And that car was freedom to us. And my heart still lifts when I see an old Ford Anglia, which is a bit sad. He was the coolest man in school. He had a turquoise Ford Anglia -Sean: And of an evening she'd phone up and say, "Come pick me up," and I'd drive down there and we'd head off somewhere else in the car. So the car became -
JK Rowling: And sit under the Severn bridge
Sean: And sit under the Severn bridge or else where?
JK Rowling: And discuss life. And drink. It's a very sad life isn't it? This - this is what we thought was exciting when we were seventeen. We used to sit down here in a Ford Anglia. Yeah, those urban kids, they don't know what they miss (HPM).
Hedwig (1174-1243)
Hedwig is the name of one of the saints, which is possibly the inspiration
for Harry's owl's name. Saint
Hedwig was canonized in 1266. She is the patron saint of brides, the death
of children, difficult marriages, victims of jealousy, and widows. Further
information about her life can be found at:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainth03.htm
and http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07189a.htm
Heilman, Elizabeth E.
Elizabeth E. Heilman is an Assistant
Professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University and is the
editor of
Harry Potter's World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives
(RoutledgeFalmer 2003).
Henderson, Shirley
Born in December 1965 in Fife, Scotland, Shirley Henderson was cast as
Moaning Myrtle in the
Harry Potter films, so
at 35 she was the oldest actor cast to play a Hogwarts student.
In Bridget Jones's Diary
she played Jude, who was always in the ladies' room crying about her
boyfriend, much as Myrtle is always
in her bathroom
crying about how no one cares about her.
Further information about Ms. Henderson can be found at:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0376602/
Herdman, Joshua
Joshua Herdman was cast as
Gregory Goyle in the
Harry Potter films.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0378830/
Heyman, David
David Heyman returned to the United Kingdom from a long career in
Los Angeles in January 1997, having agreed to develop potential
co-productions between Warner Bros. and his own independent
company, Heyday Films. Heyman was one of the first to be interested in
acquiring the film rights to Rowling's novels (reportedly within days of
the publication of PS in 1997). However, the
Christopher Little Agency
was uninterested in rushing through that process (a wise move since the
delay resulted in substantially greater financial payoff for Rowling and
her representatives). In 1999,
Christopher Little negotiated a deal with
David Heyman and Warner Bros. In 2000, Heyman by chance met his friend
Alan Radcliffe, a literary agent, at the theatre in the West End. Radcliffe
had his son Daniel with him,
and Heyman immediately believed that
Dan Radcliffe
"embodied the spirit of Harry"
(SS_JKRB).
Highfield, Roger
Roger Highfield is the author of
The Science of Harry Potter:
How Magic Really Works
(Viking Books 2002).
Highfield is the Science Editor at The Daily Telegraph (London), which
has published several thousand of his articles since he first joined the
newspaper in 1986. He studied chemistry at Oxford University where for
his doctorate he became the first person to bounce a neutron off a soap
bubble. He is a regular broadcaster on the BBC and has won several awards
for journalism. He is also a member of the Royal Society Science in Society
Committee. Dr. Highfield is also the author of
The Physics of Christmas:
From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey.
He is coauthor of three other books:
The Arrow of Time:
The Quest to Solve Time's Greatest Mystery,
a bestseller which has been translated into over a dozen languages;
The Private Lives of Albert Einstein,
which has been translated into half a dozen languages; and
Frontiers of Complexity:
The Search for Order in a Chaotic World.
Houghton, John
Author of
A Closer Look at Harry Potter:
Bending and Shaping the Minds of Our Children.
(Kingsway Communications 2001), Houghton analyzes children's
fantasy literature in the main, particularly the compatibility of this genre
with religious teachings. Reviews on
amazon.co.uk.
are not particularly favorable.
HP Education Fanon, Inc. ("HPEF")
HPEF is a non-profit corporation formed to manage and oversee educational
symposia relating to the Harry Potter phenomenon. HPEF sponsored
Nimbus - 2003 in July 2003 in Orlando,
and The Witching Hour (see).
HPEF is also sponsoring Lumos - 2006, which will be held in
Las Vegas, Nevada, in July 2006.
