10 Oldest Characters In The Harry Potter Universe

2. Barry Winkle

barry winkle 755 years old harry potter
Warner Bros

Age: 755+

Born on August 14, 1236, Barry Wee Willie Winkle (yes, really) is the oldest known wizard to ever have lived. Funnily enough, he's also one of the characters we know the least about in the entire Potter universe.

The only canonical mention of him comes during the film adaptation of The Philosopher's Stone, where a newspaper (published on August 14, 1991) describes his 755th party, and how he had invited a staggering 30 million people to attend.

Let's hope he stocked up on the booze.

How did Winkle reach such an enormous age? That's unclear. The logical assumption is that he used some form of magic, just like the Flamels did. But given that this newspaper story is the first and last time Winkle has been mentioned, we can't say for sure how he did it.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!