orlando bloom

Born
Orlando Jonathan Blanchard
Bloom
13 January 1977
Canterbury, Kent, England
Occupation
Actor
Years active
1994–present
Spouse
Miranda Kerr (2010–present)
Orlando Jonathan Blanchard
Bloom (born 13 January 1977) is
an English actor. He had his
break-through roles in 2001 as
the elf-prince Legolas in The
Lord of the Rings[1] and starting
in 2003 as blacksmith Will Turner
in the Pirates of the Caribbean
film series
, and subsequently established
himself as a lead in Hollywood
films, including Elizabethtown
and Kingdom of Heaven. He
appeared in the ensemble film
New York, I Love You, and will
have roles in Sympathy for
Delicious and Main Street. Bloom
made his professional stage
debut in West End's In
Celebration at the Duke of
York's Theatre, St. Martin's Lane,
which ended its run on 15
September 2007. On 12 October
2009, Bloom was named a
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Early life
Orlando Bloom was born in
Canterbury, Kent, England, and
has one sister, Samantha Bloom,
who was born in 1975. His
mother, Sonia Constance
Josephine (ne Copeland), was
born in the British section of
Kolkata, India, the daughter of
Betty Constance Josephine
Walker and Francis John
Copeland, who was a physician
and surgeon. Through her,
Bloom is a cousin of
photographer Sebastian
Copeland.[2] Bloom's maternal
grandmother's family lived in
Tasmania, Australia, Japan, and
India, and were of English
descent, some of them having
originally come from Kent.[3]
During his childhood, Bloom was
told that his father was his
mother's husband, South
African-born Jewish anti-
Apartheid novelist Harry Saul
Bloom; but when he was thirteen
(nine years after Harry's death),
Bloom's mother revealed to him
that his biological father was
actually Colin Stone, his mother's
partner and family friend.[4]
Stone, the principal of the
Concorde International language
school,[5] was made Orlando
Bloom's legal guardian after
Harry Bloom's death.[4] Bloom is
named after the 16th century
composer Orlando Gibbons.
[citation needed]
Bloom was raised in the Church
of England.[6] As a child, he
managed to get through The
King's School Canterbury and St
Edmund's School in Canterbury
despite his dyslexia.[4][7] He was
encouraged by his mother to
take art and drama classes.[4] In
1993, he moved to London to
follow a two year A Level course
in Drama, Photography and
Sculpture at Fine Arts College,
Hampstead. He then joined the
National Isa Youth Theatre,
spending two seasons there and
earning a scholarship to train at
the British American Drama
Academy.[8] Bloom began acting
professionally with television
roles in episodes of Casualty and
Midsomer Murders,[4] and
subsequently made his film
debut in Wilde (1997), opposite
Stephen Fry, before entering the
Guildhall School of Music and
Drama
in London, where he studied
acting.
Career
Bloom's first appearance on the
screen was in a small part, as a
rent boy, in the 1997 film Wilde.
Two days after graduating from
Guildhall in 1999,[9] he was cast
in his first major role, playing
Legolas in The Lord of the Rings
(2001–2003).[8] He had originally
auditioned for the part of
Faramir, who does not appear
until the second movie but the
director, Peter Jackson, cast him
as Legolas instead. While
shooting a scene, he broke a rib
after falling off a horse, but
eventually recovered and
continued shooting.[10] At the
same time, Bloom also played a
brief role in the war film Black
Hawk Down as PFC. Todd
Blackburn. The success of both
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
and Black Hawk Down
transformed Bloom from an
unknown actor into one of
world's best-known celebrities. In
2002, he was chosen as one of
the Teen People "25 Hottest
Stars Under 25" and was named
People's hottest Hollywood
bachelor in the magazine's 2004
list.[8] All members of the cast of
the Rings films were nominated
for Best Ensemble Acting at the
Screen Actors Guild Awards for
three years in a row, finally
winning in 2003 for the third
film, The Return of the King.
Bloom has also won other
awards, including European Film
Awards, Hollywood Festival
Award, Empire Awards and Teen
Choice Awards, and has been
nominated for many others.
Most of Bloom's box office
successes have been as part of
an ensemble cast.[1]
Bloom at the Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
London premiere, July 2006
Bloom next starred opposite
Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp
in Pirates of the Caribbean: The
Curse of the Black Pearl
, which was a blockbuster hit
during the summer of 2003.
After the success of Pirates,
Bloom next took to the screen as
Paris, the man who effectively
started the Trojan War, in the
2004 Spring blockbuster, Troy
opposite Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and
Peter O'Toole. He subsequently
played the lead roles in Kingdom
of Heaven and Elizabethtown
(both 2005). In 2006, Bloom
starred in sequel Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
and in the independently made
Haven, of which he was also
executive producer. In the same
year he was one of the guest
stars in the sitcom Extras, in
which he portrayed an
exaggeratedly arrogant,
narcissistic version of himself who
had a great loathing for Johnny
Depp (his co-star in Pirates of
the Caribbean); Bloom pushed
for Extras to go further by
making his part unlikeable, and
contributed to the gag about
him admiring Depp out of sheer
jealously, that Depp was far
more talented than he was, not
to mention rated higher than
him on the 'top hottest' charts.
[11] Also in 2006, Bloom was the
most searched male on Google
News.[4] As of May 2007, Bloom
has appeared in four of the top
15 highest grossing films of all
time.[9]
Bloom's most recent film role is
in Pirates of the Caribbean: At
World's End
, released on 24 May 2007.
Bloom, who had intended to
become a stage actor after
graduating from the Guildhall
School of Music and Drama, had
stated that he would to like to
leave films for a time and instead
appear in stage roles,[8] and is
"avidly looking for the right sort
of material that [he] can do
something with"[12] and go
"back to basics".[13] During the
summer of 2007, he appeared in
a London revival of In
Celebration, a play by David
Storey.[13][14] His character was
one of three brothers returning
home for their parents' 40th
wedding anniversary.[15] On 24
August 2007, he made his first
ever TV commercial appearance
on late-night Japanese TV,
promoting the Uno brand of
cosmetics maker Shiseido. A
"one night only", 2-minute
version of the Sci-Fi themed
commercial kicked off the
product's marketing campaign.
[16] In 2008 he signed on to play
a small role in the British film An
Education[17] but dropped out
to take the lead in Johnny To's
film Red Circle.[18] Also in 2009,
he was one of many stars to
appear in New York, I Love You,
which contained twelve short
films in one.
Bloom will reprise his role as
Legolas in The Hobbit