Orlando Bloom
Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom was born the 13 of January of 1977. Classically trained, 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 Troy, Elizabethtown and Kingdom of Heaven. He is starring in the upcoming ensemble film New York, I Love You, 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.
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, Orlando managed to get through 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 has said that he tries “not to exclude [himself] from real life as much as possible”. 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). Bloom is a practising Buddhist. In 2004, he became a full member of Soka Gakkai International, a lay Buddhist association affiliated with the teachings of Nichiren. Bloom has also been a part of Global Green, an environmental company, since the early 2000s. As part of his environmental involvement, he has renovated his London home to use solar panels, incorporate recycled materials, and utilize energy efficient lightbulbs.Bloom has been approached by UNICEF to act as an international ambassador.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” from 2002 until splitting up in September 2006.
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. 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. He also broke his back when he slipped trying to reach a roof terrace of a friend’s house and fell three floors.
In late 2007, Bloom began dating Australian model Miranda Kerr.In 2008, Bloom actively supported Barack Obama, also volunteering phone canvassing work in California.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.
