Name: Orlando Bloom
Born: January 13, 1977
Hometown: Canterbury, England"I will take Legolas, and this experience in New Zealand, wherever I go. The beautiful thing about being an actor is every character you embrace, when you move on, you take part of the character with you."
~Orlando BloomCanterbury Tales: The Early YearsOrlando Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, England on January 13, 1977, and his unusual name was reportedly inspired by the 17th century composer Orlando Gibbons. Orlando was raised in Canterbury by his mother along with his sister Samantha, who is two years older. Growing up, Orlando believed that his father was anti-apartheid activist and novelist Harry Bloom, who died when Orlando was only four. When he was a teenager, his mother revealed to him that his biological father was, in fact, a family friend and his guardian, Colin Stone.While growing up in Canterbury, Orlando's mother taught him and his sister to enjoy the arts and encouraged them to participate in the local Kent Festival, where he began by reciting poetry and prose, which Orlando recalls led to a deeper interest in acting: "It gave me a sensitivity to language in terms of vocalising it. I always used to get involved with the school plays. My teacher at school, who would take drama, would always give me interesting roles as a kid. My mum would take us to the theatre, and watching these larger-than-life characters I decided I want to become an actor."Orlando attended St Edmunds School in Canterbury, and went on to study photography, sculpture and theatre at A-level. At the age of 16, he left Canterbury to move to London to act with the National Youth Theatre, where he spent two years before being awarded a scholarship to train with the British American Drama Academy. After leaving the Academy, his appearance in a stage production of "A Walk in the Vienna Woods" landed him an agent, and at the age of 20, he was cast in his first film role, a bit part in the critically acclaimed Wilde (1997), about playwright Oscar Wilde.His appearance in Wilde earned him various film offers, but Orlando turned those offers down in favor of attending the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama (other famous alumni include Ewan McGregor, Joseph Fiennes, and Ben Chaplin). Orlando appeared in several plays at Guildhall, including The Seagull, Twelfth Night, Trojan Women, Chekhov's Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya, and Sophocles' Antigone. He also had small guest roles in British TV shows, such as "Casualty," "The Ben Elton Show," and later "Midsomer Murders."In 1998, while still a student at Guildhall, Orlando was trying to climb onto a friend's rooftop terrace when he fell three stories and broke his back. Doctors told him he would probably never walk again, but after surgery he was able to walk out of the hospital on crutches less than two weeks later. He later recalled, "It was amazing that I didn't die. I was young and dumb. Amazingly, I walked out on crutches in 12 days." He has also been quoted as saying, "My back is a constant reminder of how lucky I am." Describing himself as "accident prone," Orlando has also broken a rib, his nose, both legs, an arm, a wrist, a finger, a toe, and has cracked his skull three times.The Lord of the Rings: A Star is BornAs a young teenager, Orlando tried reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he abandoned the books in favor of more exciting pursuits like sports and girls. He did not complete the three volumes until his early twenties, when he was given a good reason to pick up the books again. In 1999, at the age of 22, when he was just three days shy of graduation from Guildhall, Orlando was chosen among thousands of hopefuls around the world when he was cast as the Elf Warrior "Legolas" in Peter Jackson's 270-million-dollar, highly anticipated film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He originally auditioned for the role of the human Faramir, a character introduced in the second film, The Two Towers, but he lost out on that role to Australian actor David Wenham. His disappointment at learning that he was not chosen to play Faramir quickly disappeared upon learning that he was instead chosen to play Legolas, the Elf Prince of Mirkwood, expert archer, and one of the key members of the Fellowship who is prominently featured in all three films.After graduating from Guildhall, Orlando left London in the fall of 1999 to spend the next fifteen months on location in New Zealand filming all three Lord of the Rings films. Before filming even began, Orlando spent two months training in archery, sword play, and horseback riding in order to learn the skills he would need to play Legolas. In addition to being an expert archer, Tolkien's warrior elf is an immortal 2,931 years old, with super-human strength, swift reflexes, and heightened sensory awareness. To portray these qualities, Orlando developed a graceful style of combat based on the characters in Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai and worked to manage his posture, poise, and composure. Standing 5'11", Orlando's Legolas the Elf is a tall, athletic, and skilled fighter of evil--he truly is larger than life.Sporting a long blond wig, makeup, and blue contacts to disguise his natural dark hair and eyes, and olive complexion, Orlando was unrecognizable as he immersed himself in the role of Legolas, although he does share his impressive cheekbones in common with the Elf Prince. The piercing intelligence and intensity behind his eyes also shine through to give his performance unusual depth and sensitivity, even when he has few or no lines of dialogue in many scenes. Orlando allows Legolas's actions to speak for him, and like many great performances, he does not need words to speak volumes. As Movieline Magazine described his performance, in selecting it as one of the Ten Standout Performances from young actors in 2001: "He did have an almost unreal, cheekbone-bedecked handsomeness, but he also moved with crystalline resolve and athletic grace. Even when a million things are happening at once, Bloom grabs your attention and makes you feel everything that depends on the great battle of good and evil."%While on location in New Zealand, despite warnings from producers to avoid high-risk activities that might result in injuries, Orlando quickly became known as the daredevil of the cast, and frequently went bungee jumping and snow boarding, and learned to surf with the actors playing the Hobbits. As he explained, "We sampled everything the country has to offer. The weirdest things to throw yourself off are to be found in New Zealand." He and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) also had many scenes together and became close friends during filming, although the differences between their human and elf characters led to a lot of good-natured ribbing. "Vig used to call me 'Elf boy', and I'd call him 'filthy human'. As an Elf, I never got a scratch on me, never got dirty. And Vig would come out with blood and sweat all over him. And he'd say to me, 'Oh, go manicure your nails.' . . . "Viggo will go on about Elves and how they're always doing their nails and brushing their long, blonde hair, and being all prissy. And I just say: Well, at least I'm going to live forever%21 Got that%3F LIVE FOREVER%21"In fact, all of the actors became such close friends during filming that Orlando and Dominic Monaghan (Merry) came up with the idea that the nine actors playing the members of the Fellowship should get tattoos to commemorate their experience, which all of them did, except for John Rhys-Davies (Gimli), who sent his stunt double to get the tattoo in his place. Even Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) participated in the tattoo ritual. The tattoo is the Elvish symbol for "nine," and Orlando got his on his forearm. (He also has a small tattoo of the sun on his abdomen that he got when he was fifteen.) The actors made a pact not to display the tattoo to the media during publicity for the film, but one or two later caved on that promise, and photos of the tattoo have surfaced in the press.Orlando also lived up to his "accident prone" reputation during filming of Lord of the Rings, but surprisingly it was not while he was out surfing or bungee-jumping. When shooting a scene on horseback, the horse he was riding on fell and the stunt double for John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) that was also riding on the horse landed on Orlando, cracking one of his ribs. Doctors gave Orlando medication for the pain, but he was back on the set able to resume filming again within a day or two.The Fellowship of the Ring was released in December, 2001, and was instantly a huge critical and box office success around the world, going on to become one of the highest grossing films of all time. Orlando received widespread praise for his performance as Legolas, and although his role is significantly smaller than other more prominent characters, he immediately became a breakout star, with young girls around the world swooning over his elvish good looks. Orlando immediately became an internet darling and began appearing in magazines all over the world and making the talk show circuit, with a winning smile and charming British wit that earned him even more fans. He won an award for "Breakthrough Male" at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards, and was also nominated along with the entire Fellowship cast, for Best Ensemble acting at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Upon winning the award for "Best Debut" at the 2002 Empire Awards sponsored by British film magazine Empire, Orlando thanked director Peter Jackson for seeing some kind of "pointy-eared quality" in him that persuaded Jackson to cast him as Legolas. In her own acceptance speech at those same Empire Awards for Best Actress (for Enigma), Kate Winslet even went out of her way to praise Orlando's performance in Fellowship of the Ring as "brilliant." 3;"Breaking the Hobbit: Life after RingsA Pirates Life for Me: Hollywood HeartthrobIn 2002, Orlando's increasingly higher profile in Hollywood led to a co-starring role in the big-budget Disney production of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, in which he plays the swashbuckling sidekick to Johnny Depp. Pirates, based on the popular Disney theme-park ride of the same name, was produced by Hollywood hitmaker Jerry Bruckheimer. Orlando plays Will Turner, who teams up with gentleman rogue Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) in a daring attempt to rescue the kidnapped daughter of the governor from pirates led by the evil Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). Pirates was released in the U.S. on July 9, 2003, and was the surprise smash hit of the summer, eventually earning over $300 million in the USA and over $650 million worldwide. A sequel is already in the works, with both Orlando and Johnny Depp signed on to reprise their roles. Filming is expected to begin in late 2004.Like the first two LOTR installments, the third and final movie in the LOTR trilogy, The Return of the King, opened to worldwide acclaim and huge box office success in December, 2003. For the third year in a row, Orlando was nominated along with the entire cast of Return of the King for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will be awarded on February 22, 2004. Orlando also received a nomination as Best Supporting Actor in the AOL Moviegoer Awards (along with ROTK co-stars Sean Astin and Ian McKellen), which are voted on by movie fans. Winners will be announced February 24, 2004.Not content to rest on his Elvish laurels, by the time ROTK was released Orlando had already completed work on Troy, which is an epic account of the Trojan War loosely adapted from Homer's The Iliad and other historical sources by screenwriter David Benioff (The 25th Hour). Directed by Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm, Air Force One), Troy stars Brad Pitt as Greek warrior Achilles and Eric Bana as the noble Hector, Prince of Troy. Orlando plays Hector's younger brother Paris, who steals the beautiful Helen away from her husband, Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and prompts the 10-year war between Greece and Troy. Troy boasts an all-star cast, including Peter O'Toole as King Priam, father of Hector and Paris; Julie Christie as Thetis, mother of Achilles; Sean Bean (Boromir in Fellowship of the Ring) as Odysseus; Saffron Burrows as Andromache, Hector's wife; Brian Cox as Agamemnon; and Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus. Soon after wrapping production on Pirates, Orlando headed back to London to begin work on Troy, which filmed on location in the UK and Mexico in the summer and fall of 2003. It is scheduled to be released in the USA on May 14, 2004.Following up his role in Troy, Orlando garnered his first producer credit on Haven, a low-budget crime-drama set and filmed in the Cayman Islands in which he co-stars with Bill Paxton. Production on Haven was completed in December 2003. It earned very good critics at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival but it was obviously difficult to find a distributor for it. It finally has its cinema release in autumn of 2006 (fingers crossed).After the huge box office success of the LOTR trilogy and Pirates, Orlando's status as a supporting actor was upgraded to leading man when he reteamed with director Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down) for the epic film Kingdom of Heaven. Orlando plays Balian, a young blacksmith who becomes a knight, saves a kingdom, and falls in love with the princess of Jerusalem (Eva Green) while defending the city against the Crusaders in the 12th century. Liam Neeson co-stars as Balian's father, and other members of the cast include Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson (also in Troy), and David Thewlis. Unfairly treated by the critics before-hand the film flopped in the US but did very good in the international market. Almost 6 months later the special extended version of Kingdom of Heaven had a short revival in selected US cinemas. The critics were now raving about about "This fantastic piece of period movie" and some considered it even better than Ridley Scott's Oscar showered Gladiator. Sadly for fans the extended version is only available on DVD.Orlando is very proud of this film and rightly he is. He also made a friend for life on the set - his black Labrador mutt Siddi which is now following him around to press junkets and sets all over the world whenever possible. Orlando became friends with the dog when he saw it eating camel dung at the set close to Ouazazarte (the capital of southern Morocco with the Atlas Mountains as panoramic backround) in Morocco.
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