Gilderoy Lockhart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harry Potter character | |
 Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
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| Professor Gilderoy Lockhart | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Hair colour | Blond |
| Eye colour | Forget-me-not blue |
| Allegiance | Himself |
| Actor | Kenneth Branagh |
| First appearance | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
Gilderoy Lockhart is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of books. He is a wizarding celebrity, having written many books on his fabulous adventures encountering Dark Creatures. He has blond, wavy hair and particularly straight shiny teeth. He is narcissistic, self-obsessed, and something of a buffoon.
Despite his celebrity status in the wizarding community, his fan base consists mostly of middle-aged women and teenage girls (who find him especially attractive). His home is unknown, nor whether he even studied at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His honours and awards include: Order of Merlin, Third Class; Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League; and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award.
In the school year of 1992–1993, Lockhart is appointed as Hogwarts' new Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor. In his first lesson, he gives the class a test concerning his biography, "Magical Me". He is unpopular amongst the staff and is particularly disliked by Professor Severus Snape, who sought the position Gilderoy holds. Hermione Granger develops a crush on him, much to the disgust of Ron Weasley. Lockhart is disliked by Harry, partly because he believed Harry flew to Hogwarts in a car to make himself more famous. After being photographed together for The Daily Prophet, Gilderoy thinks it put ideas into Harry's head and that he was handing out signed photos of himself.
In the film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart is played by Kenneth Branagh. It is unknown whether Branagh or the character will return for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is Lockhart's only other appearance to date.
Gilderoy Lockhart is exposed as a fraud when, attempting to avoid entering the Chamber of Secrets, reveals to Ron and Harry that he never performed the amazing feats in his books. Instead, he stole other wizards' experiences, then erased their memories with a memory charm. While trying to eliminate Harry and Ron's memories to conceal his fraud, the spell backfires when he uses Ron's broken wand. Consequently, Gilderoy loses his memory and is sent to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. On Christmas in 1995, Harry Potter sees Lockhart in hospital, slowly regaining his memory and saying he is so improved that he can now write joined-up letters (script). Lockhart still receives fan mail, although he has no idea why, and still likes signing autographs.
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[edit] Lockhart's past
Nothing has been revealed about Lockhart's origins. Considering his dishonesty, everything he says should be considered suspect. Lockhart claims he was once a nobody and, apparently, failed to get himself noticed as a child. It is noteworthy that the Healer in charge of Lockhart at St. Mungo's says he never has visitors.
[edit] Character
Lockhart is narcissistic - he decorates both the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and his personal office with smiling portraits of himself. He is also a coward and appears rather unintelligent - he is incapable of performing defensive magic, but claims he is skilled at performing Memory Charms. Lockhart's true "skills" were demonstrated during an early DADA class when he sets several pixies loose in the classroom, telling students, "See what you make of them!" When the pixies wreak havoc and Lockhart is unable to control them, he rapidly departs, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione to deal with them.
[edit] Trivia
- Lockhart's books include Magical Me, Break with a Banshee, Gadding with Ghouls, Holidays with Hags, Travels with Trolls, Voyages with Vampires, Wanderings with Werewolves (also, probably mistakenly, called Weekend with a Werewolf) and Year with a Yeti.
- Lockhart's favourite colour is lilac, and he uses lilac-colored ink to respond to his fan mail, proven when Harry was addressing an envelope to Veronica Smethley in Chamber of Secrets.
- He claims his ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples, although he would accept a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky.
- He claims his secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market his own range of hair-care potions.
- According to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, although some characteristics of various characters come from people she knows, Gilderoy Lockhart is the only character she has ever specifically modelled after a real person, who was apparently "even more objectionable than his fictional counterpart". She claims that the person is probably taking the credit for the Harry Potter series. However, she refuses to name the person, only fiercely denying rumours that her first husband was the inspiration.
[edit] Name
J.K. Rowling stated in an interview with Stephen Fry that Gilderoy Lockhart's first name was derived from a handsome highwayman from British fable. The name Lockhart was taken from a war memorial.
| Preceded by Quirinus Quirrell |
Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher August 1992-June 1993 |
Succeeded by Remus Lupin |
[edit] External links
| J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philosopher's Stone | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Chamber of Secrets | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Prisoner of Azkaban | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Goblet of Fire | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Order of the Phoenix | book | (film) | (game) | ||
| Half-Blood Prince | book | (film) | |||
| Book Seven | (book) | ||||
| Other books | Other games | ||||
| Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup | ||||
| Quidditch Through the Ages | |||||
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Plot – Characters – Places – Spells – Translations – Fandom – Related articles - Quidditch |
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