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The downside of having a famous name, even when you had it first!

Sometimes an accident of birth can take you further that you don’t even want to go in the first place. Check out this unlikely Florida senior citizen with a name he has come to regret having.

Once upon a time in Bradenton, Florida, there lived a seventy-eight year old man named Harry Potter. What’s that, you say? Stop the presses! But dare I go on? This poor senior citizen bears the name of a certain fictional boy wizard and there is nothing magical at all about his life of non-interviews, non-requests for autographs and non-incessant phone calls from adoring children all over the world. And each time a new book comes out, it gets worse. (Well, now, since the last edition has hit the stands he won’t have to worry about that anymore.)

Poor Harry says:

“The kids want to know if I’m Harry Potter. I tell them I’ve been Harry Potter for darn near 80 years!”

The real Harry Potter hasn’t had time to read the books about his namesake or see the five hit movies. Still, the retired Defense Department employee admits with a chuckle that he has gotten his own particular mileage out of Pottermania.