Daniel Radcliffe Releases Heart-Wrenching Statement Honoring Robbie Coltrane

To many, late actor Robbie Coltrane is best remembered as the gentle half-giant who rescued a certain boy wizard from a miserable life, introducing him — and an entire generation of young fans — to a magical world that they would find themselves wanting to revisit again and again.

So after Deadline reported the death of the man who brought Hagrid to life, many of those fans took to social media to pay tribute to Coltrane, flooding Twitter with references to one of Daniel Radcliffe's lines from the film "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." Tweeted one mourner, "'There's no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid.' May your memory be a blessing, Robbie Coltrane."

Coltrane's co-stars also honored his memory by sharing how much they loved the late star. So many of the actors who worked alongside him in the "Harry Potter" movies were just children at the time, whereas Coltrane was a seasoned star whose acting credits included the crime drama "Cracker" and two James Bond movies. But on Instagram, Bonnie Wright, the actor who played Ginny Weasley in the films, wrote, "Robbie always treated me and my fellow cast mates when we were wee kids like equal professionals on a film set." Meanwhile, Neville Longbottom actor Matthew Lewis fondly remembered how he and Coltrane bonded over a shared fascination with space. "He didn't give a f*** and it always made you smile. A giant, in more ways than one," he tweeted. Radcliffe also had a sweet memory to share.

Daniel Radcliffe and many of his castmates spent a decade working alongside Robbie Coltrane, growing into adulthood during the course of their time in the wizarding world. In a statement shared by Variety, Radcliffe reminisced about how Coltrane brightened their moods while filming the 2004 movie "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Apparently, the less-than-ideal filming conditions were almost as bleak as its titular setting. Luckily, while heavy rainfall halted filming for long stretches of time, Radcliffe and some of his co-stars ended up trapped inside the cozy hut that Hogwarts' Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Rubeus Hagrid, called home in the movies. "He was telling stories and cracking jokes to keep morale up," Radcliffe said of Coltrane. "I feel incredibly lucky that I got to meet and work with him and very sad that he's passed. He was an incredible actor and a lovely man."

Per IMDb, The last project Coltrane worked on was the "Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts" special, which was released earlier this year. In the HBO Max documentary, Coltrane shares some thoughts about his time as Hagrid that will be sure to hurt a few hearts now. "The legacy of the movies is that my children's generation will show them to their children, so you could be watching it in 50 years' time, easy," he says. "I'll not be here sadly, but Hagrid will."