David Holmes, the stuntman for Daniel Radcliffe in all but two Harry Potter films, is the subject of the HBO documentary David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, about the tragic on-set accident that left him paralyzed at 25 years old.
When and how was Daniel Radcliffe stunt man David Holmes injured?
Holmes was injured in 2009 while shooting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. He tragically broke his neck while attempting to do a flying stunt where a high-strength wire rapidly pulled him back against the wall to recreate the effects of an explosion, leaving him paralyzed.
Mirror UK spoke to Holmes at length in 2014 about the traumatic experience, as the stuntman detailed the moment he found out something was seriously wrong, and how his first concern wasn’t never waking again but being unable to dance or have sex.
After landing on the mat underneath him, Holmes’ stunt coordinator asked him to squeeze his fingers. While he could move his arm, he wasn’t able to carry out the request. “I looked into his eyes and that’s when I realized what happened was major,” Holmes described, adding that the extreme pain caused him to slip in and out of consciousness.
Holmes grew up as a gymnast prodigy from the age of six and saw stuntwork as his “calling in life.” The fact that his first major job was playing the beloved protagonist of what is arguably the biggest film series of all-time was nothing short of a dream. The stunt double was only 17 when he started working on Harry Potter as a stand-in for the young wizard, who was famously played by a pre-pubescent 11-year-old Daniel Radcliffe at the time.
The two became incredibly close after years together on set, and even went on to host a podcast together in 2020. Radcliffe also served as an executive producer on the HBO documentary about Holmes’ life. Before his career was cut short, the Essex, England native also worked on the likes of The Golden Compass, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived will be available to stream on Max from Nov. 15.