Orlando Bloom

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 and starting in 2003 as blacksmith Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy of films, 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.

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. 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. 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. Stone, the principal of the Concorde International language school, was made Orlando Bloom's legal guardian after Harry Bloom's death. Bloom, who is named after the 16th century composer Orlando Gibbons, has one sister, Samantha Bloom, who was born in 1975.

Bloom was raised in the Church of England.As a child, he managed to get through The King's School Canterbury and St Edmund's School in Canterbury despite his dyslexia. He was encouraged by his mother to take art and drama classes. 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. Bloom began acting professionally with television roles in episodes of Casualty and Midsomer Murders, 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.

Bloom's first appearance on the screen was as a rent boy in the 1997 film Wilde - he had a small part. Two days after graduating from Guildhall in 1999, he was cast in his first major role, playing Legolas in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003). 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.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. 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.

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. Also in 2006, Bloom was the most searched male on Google News.[6] As of May 2007, Bloom has appeared in four of the top 15 highest grossing films of all time.

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, and is "avidly looking for the right sort of material that  can do something with" and go "back to basics". During the summer of 2007,he appeared in a London revival of In Celebration, a play by David Storey. His character was one of three brothers returning home for their parents' 40th wedding anniversary. 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. 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 to 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!" In 2008 he signed on to play a small role in the British film An Education but dropped out to take the lead in Johnny To's film Red Circle. Also in 2009, he was one of many stars to appear in New York, I Love You, which contained twelve short films in one.

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