Early life
Orlando Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, England. His mother, Sonia Constance Josephine (née 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.[4] Bloom's maternal grandmother's family lived in Tasmania, Australia and India, and were of English descent, some of them having originally come from Kent.[1][5] 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.[6] Stone, the principal of the Concorde International language school,[7] was made Orlando Bloom's legal guardian after Harry Bloom's death.[6] Bloom, who is named after the 16th century composer Orlando Gibbons,[1] has one sister, Samantha Bloom, who was born in 1975.
Bloom was raised in the Church of England.[8] As a child, Orlando managed to get through St Edmund's School in Canterbury despite his dyslexia.[6][9] He was encouraged by his mother to take art and drama classes.[6] 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 Youth Theatre, spending two seasons there and earning a scholarship to train at the British American Drama Academy.[10] Bloom began acting professionally with television roles in episodes of Casualty and Midsomer Murders,[6] 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 a small role as a rent boy in the 1997 film Wilde. Two days after graduating from Guildhall in 1999,[11] he was cast in his first major role, playing Legolas in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003).[10] He had originally auditioned for the part of Faramir, who doesn't 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.[12] 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.[who?] 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.[10] 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.[3]
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, the independently made Haven, for which he was executive producer, and was one of the guest stars in the sitcom Extras, in which he portrayed an 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 with making his part unlikeable and contributed to the gag about him loathing Depp.[13] Also in 2006, Bloom was the most searched for male on Google News.[6] As of May 2007, Bloom has appeared in four of the top 15 highest grossing films of all time.[11]
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,[10] and is "avidly looking for the right sort of material that [he] can do something with"[14] and go "back to basics".[15] During the summer of 2007,he appeared in a London revival of In Celebration, a play by David Storey.[15][16] His character was one of three brothers returning home for their parents' 40th wedding anniversary.[17] 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.[18] Orlando Bloom and Kanye West are rumoured to be starring in the 2010 remake of "Jesus Christ: Superstar". He was also one of the four main actors voted for on Stephenie Meyer's website portray Edward Cullen in the 2008 movie Twilight. However, he was considered too old to realistically play the part. This was also said of Henry Cavill who was Meyer's first choice.
In 2008 he was slimed at the Kid's Choice Awards, what Jack Black called, "The biggest slime in history!"[citation needed] In 2008 he signed on to play a small role in the British film An Education[19] but dropped out to take the lead in Johnny To's film Red Circle.[20] Also coming in 2009, he will be one of many stars to be in New York, I Love You, which contains twelve short films in one.
Personal life
Bloom has said that he tries "not to exclude [himself] from real life as much as possible".[6] He is a Manchester United fan and lives in London. During filming in Morocco for Kingdom of Heaven, Bloom rescued and adopted a dog, Sidi (a black Saluki mix with a white mark on his chest).[21] Bloom is a practising Buddhist;[11] In 2004, he became a full member of Soka Gakkai International, a lay Buddhist association affiliated with the teachings of Nichiren.[22][23] Bloom has also been a part of Global Green, an environmental company, since the early 2000s.[3] As part of his environmental involvement, he has renovated his London home to use solar panels, incorporate recycled materials, and utilize energy efficient lightbulbs.[3][6] Bloom has been approached by UNICEF to act as an international ambassador.[3] Bloom met American actress Kate Bosworth outside a coffee shop in 2002, where he was introduced to her by a mutual friend. He met her again at the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers later that year. The two had an "on-and-off relationship"[6] from 2002 until splitting up in September 2006.[24][25]
Bloom has a tattoo of the Elvish word "nine" on his right wrist, written in the Tengwar script, a reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings and the fact that his character was one of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. The other actors of "The Fellowship" (Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, and Elijah Wood) got the same tattoo with the exception of John Rhys-Davies whose stunt double got the tattoo instead.[26] Bloom also has a tattoo of a sun on his lower, left abdomen, which he got at the age of 15 just before moving to London.
Bloom has sustained several injuries: he broke his left arm and cracked his skull three times, broke his nose while playing rugby union, broke his right leg skiing in Switzerland, broke his left leg in a motorbike crash, broke his right wrist while snowboarding.[11] He also broke his back when he slipped trying to reach a roof terrace of a friend's house and fell three floors.[27] The doctors operated on his back, inserting screws and plates. During the hospital stay, Bloom said that he didn't think he would walk again, but twelve days later, he was walking on crutches. Bloom also sustained cracked ribs while working on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and along with Viggo Mortensen, who had broken two toes, and Gimli stunt double Bret Beattie, who had a knee injury, were considered by director Peter Jackson as 'the running wounded'.[citation needed].
In late 2007, Bloom began dating Australian model Miranda Kerr.[28] In 2008, Bloom actively supported Barack Obama, also volunteering phone canvassing work in California.[29]
In 2008, Bloom was named the 37th Sexiest Man on T.V. Guide's Top 50 Film's Sexiest Man Alive.
On 12 February 2009 Bloom actively participated in the 'Australia Unites' fundraiser to raise support for the victims of the Australian bushfires on 7 February 2009.[30]
