Who is David Holmes and what happened to him?

DANIEL Radcliffe shot to fame when he landed the lead role in the Harry Potter film franchise.

However, some fans may not know that most of his death defying stunts in the movies were performed by David Holmes – who sadly had a terrible accident that changed his life forever.

Daniel Radcliffe with his Harry Potter stuntman David HolmesCredit: JohnWilson/HBO

Who is David Holmes?

While Daniel Radcliffe is the face of the Harry Potter movie franchise, Essex-born David Holmes is the person film fans see performing the action-packed scenes.

From duels between Harry Potter and Voldemort, to riding a broomstick playing Quidditch stuntman David did it all.

He was actor Daniel’s stunt double in the first six films of the Harry Potter film series.

Before becoming a stuntman, David was a gymanist.

After retiring from acting, due to a horror accident, he launched a podcast with Daniel, called Cunning Stunts, where they interview other stunt actors to raise awareness about the risks they face.

What happened to David Holmes?

David had a horror accident on the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which changed his life forever.

While he was rehearsing a stunt, it went horribly wrong and he broke his neck, leaving him paralysed.

Since the accident he has had to use a wheelchair and he also quit his movie career.

What is the David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived documentary about?

Daniel Radcliffe has made a documentary on David which documents their friendship, and his good friend’s terrible accident.

Over the course of a decade of making Harry Potter movies, they built up a huge bond, which is explored in the doc.

The HBO documentary, David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, also examines David’s “spirit of resilience” as he dealt with the life changing injury.

The official synopsis reads: “David Holmes, a prodigious teenage gymnast from Essex, England, who is selected to play Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double in the first Harry Potter film, when Daniel is just 11.

“Over the next ten years, the two form an inextricable bond, but on the penultimate film a tragic accident on set leaves David paralysed with a debilitating spinal injury, turning his world upside down.

“As Daniel and his closest stunt colleagues rally to support David and his family in their moment of need, it is David’s extraordinary spirit of resilience that becomes their greatest source of strength and inspiration.

Posting on Instagram, about the documentary, David said: “This film tells the story of not just my achievements in front of camera, but also the challenges I face every day, and my overall attitude to life after suffering a broken neck.”

Daniel and David remained good friends during and after filming Harry Potter together.

In fact in 2009, Daniel hosted a charity auction in 2009 to raise money for David’s medical bills.

The actor has also opened up about their friendship on several occasions.

Speaking about David back in 2014, he told The Mirror: “I’ve got a relationship that goes back many, many years with Dave.

“And I would hate for people to just see me and Dave and go, ‘Oh, there’s Daniel Radcliffe with a person in a wheelchair’ because I would never, even for a moment, want them to assume that Dave was anything except for an incredibly important person in my life.”

You can watch the documentary on on Sky Documentaries and the streaming service NOW from November 18, 2023.