Background

Orlando Bloom was born on January 13, 1977, in Canterbury, England. His mother, Sonia, ran a foreign language school; his father, Harry, was a human rights activist, lawyer, and author. Before moving to Canterbury the elder Blooms lived in South Africa, where Harry Bloom (1913-1981) was a fierce fighter in the struggle against apartheid, a policy of racial segregation. When Orlando was only four years old, his father died after suffering a stroke. He and his older sister, Samantha, were raised by their mother, who had a profound effect on her children.

Sonia Bloom was a businesswoman, but she was also a true lover of the arts. She even named her son after her favorite English composer, Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625). While growing up, Sonia frequently took Orlando and Samantha to the theater and encouraged both of them to attend drama classes and Bible reading classes. By the age of eight Bloom was appearing in school plays, and he and his sister were competing in local festivals.

His introduction to the theater made Bloom decide at an early age that he wanted to be an actor. Acting was also a positive outlet for Bloom since it helped him work through some early childhood problems. He was "quite a chubby kid." Part of the chubbiness came about during his recovery from a skiing injury that happened when he was nine - while Bloom was recovering, he moped about the house and ate candy bars. A more serious issue arose when he was diagnosed with severe dyslexia, which means that he has trouble reading and processing language.

At age thirteen Bloom received another blow when he learned from his mother that Harry Bloom was not his real father. His biological father (and Samantha's as well) was a man named Colin Stone, a longtime family friend who was also Bloom's legal guardian. Colin is actually the biological father of both Orlando and his sister; the two were conceived after an agreement by his parents, since Harry, who suffered a stroke in 1975, was unable to have children. In interviews, Bloom has sometimes seemed uncomfortable talking about the issue, but the revelation does not seem to have caused a great deal of disruption. As he explained later: "I was lucky, I had two dads... As long as I can remember, Colin has been a good friend, but I always thought Harry was my real father."

Education

Bloom attended the St Peter's Methodist Primary School initially. He was later transferred to the King's School and St. Edmund's School in Canterbury.

Raised by his mother along with elder sister Samantha, he left Canterbury's St. Edmunds school aged 16 to pursue his dream with the National Youth Theatre. One year after receiving a scholarship to attend the British American Drama Academy in London in 1995 he entered the city's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1999, he graduated and at the same time scooped a starring role in Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

Career

Days before his graduation, Bloom was cast in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. The first film of the trilogy, 2001's The Fellowship of the Ring, was a huge blockbuster and critical success. The Lord of the Rings is the epic tale of nine warriors (four hobbits, two humans, a dwarf, an elf, and a wizard) who must form a fellowship in order to save their mythical world of Middle Earth from destruction. It is a sweeping adventure story, and bringing it to the screen was a major undertaking. In an interview with Henry Cabot Beck in Interview magazine, Bloom admitted that it was more than a little intimidating for his first big role to be in such a major movie. The young actor spent months preparing to play Legolas since the role required him to be an expert at archery, sword fighting, and horseback riding. After recovering from his back injury, Bloom welcomed the physical challenge.

The trilogy was released over a three-year period. The Fellowship of the Ring was unveiled in 2001, followed by The Two Towers in 2002, and The Return of the King in 2003. All three movies broke box office records and all three were critically acclaimed. In 2002 Bloom received an award for Best Debut at the Empire Awards, sponsored by the British film magazine Empire. He also won the Breakthrough Male honor at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards. At the same time, fans around the world catapulted the young actor to fame.

While working on The Fellowship of the Ring, Bloom took a small role in director Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (2001), a movie about the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, East Africa. The film was a case of art imitating life: Bloom played a U.S. Army Ranger who breaks his back falling from a helicopter. The part was small but pivotal, and Bloom was applauded for his efforts. Just two years out of school, the twenty-three-year-old actor had appeared in two of the top movies of 2001, and he was just getting started.

Bloom continued to appear in films that challenge him physically, and he also shared the screen with some of Hollywood's more established heartthrobs. In 2003 he co-starred in Ned Kelly, a shoot-'em-up movie about a notorious Australian outlaw. Australian hunk Heath Ledger played the lead, while Bloom portrayed Joe Byrne, a member of Kelly's gang.

In 2003 he starred as the sensitive Will Turner in the Disney action/adventure The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, alongside Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp. Pirates marked another huge world blockbuster for Bloom, who would go on to star in the next two sequels of the franchise: Dead's Man Chest (2006) and At World's End (2007).

Bloom continued doing period work, playing Paris in the 2004 film Troy, which also stars Brad Pitt and Eric Bana. The following year, the actor was featured as a leading man in two films: Ridley Scott's Crusades epic Kingdom of Heaven and Cameron Crowe's drama Elizabethtown (both released in 2005). Then, in 2006, Bloom appeared with actress Zoe Saldana in the thriller Haven, which he also co-produced.

In between his more high-profile Hollywood work, Bloom has starred in indie fare like Ned Kelley (2003) and New York, I Love You (2009). Additionally, in 2007, he returned to the stage for a London revival of In Celebration.

Another cape-and-sword opportunity arose for Bloom when he was cast in a 2011 update of The Three Musketeers, which failed to catch hold at the U.S. box office. The actor then returned to working with Jackson, reprising his role as Greenleaf for portions of The Hobbit film trilogy, the first installment of which was released in December 2012: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Bloom reprised his role as Will Turner for the fifth time in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) and showed his sense of humor in the Andy Samberg-led mockumentary Tour de Pharmacy, playing the character Juju Pepe.

Achievements

• 

  In a 2004 poll of cultural experts conducted for the BBC, Bloom was named the twelfth-most influential person in British culture. On 13 July 2010, Bloom appeared in his home town of Canterbury where he was presented with an Honorary Degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury Cathedral. For contributions to the film industry, Bloom was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 2 April 2014. His motion pictures star is located at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Carnival Row

    (With a serial killer loose on Carnival Row, and a governm...)

    2019
  • The Three Musketeers

    (The young hero D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman) and three of Fra...)

    2011
  • Kingdom Of Heaven

    (The Crusades; that world-shaping 200-year collision betwe...)

    2005
  • Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring

    (In the first part, The Lord of the Rings, a shy young hob...)

    2001
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

    (In the company of thirteen dwarves and the wizard Gandalf...)

    2013
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies

    (The epic conclusion to the adventure of Bilbo Baggins, wh...)

    2014
  • Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

    (In the part second of the Tolkien trilogy, Frodo Baggins ...)

    2002
  • Love and Other Disasters

    (From the director of Madonna: Truth or Dare, this delight...)

    2006
  • Unlocked

    (When her own agency turns against her, an undercover CIA ...)

    2017
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

    (Captain Jack Sparrow is pursued by old rival Captain Sala...)

    2017
  • Troy

    (In ancient Greece, passion of 2 of history's most legenda...)

    2004
  • Ned Kelly

    (Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom and Naomi Watts star in this ...)

    2003
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

    (When pirate Captain Jack Sparrow is trapped on a sea of s...)

    2007
  • S.M.A.R.T. Chase

    (Orlando Bloom stars as a washed-up security agent who mus...)

    2017
  • Tour de Pharmacy

    (A fictional Tour de France in which every competitor was ...)

    2017
  • The Good Doctor

    (A young doctor's eagerness to impress his superiors and c...)

    2011
  • Wilde

    (This lush, historical drama is based on the late Richard ...)

    1997
  • Black Hawk Down

    (Based on the true story of a war waged in Mogadishu by th...)

    2001
  • Haven

    (Drawn by warm waters and nonexistent taxes, rich business...)

    2004
  • Digging for Fire

    (The discovery of a bone and a rusty old gun send a husban...)

    2015
  • Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

    (Pirate Jack Sparrow must seize the fabled "Dead Man's Che...)

    2006
  • Main Street

    (Oscar-winner Colin Firth & Orlando Bloom star in a drama ...)

    2010
  • Elizabethtown

    (Drew Baylor, a hot-shot designer whose life becomes compl...)

    2005
  • Romeo & Juliet

    (Set in Verona, Italy, this is the tragic story of two sta...)

    2014
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

    (Join the adventures of Jack Sparrow and his nemesis Capta...)

    2003
  • New York, I Love You

    (In the city that never sleeps, love is always on the mind...)

    2009
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

    (In the conclusion of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece, T...)

    2003

Religion

Bloom was raised in the Church of England. But in 2004, Bloom officially converted to Buddhism at a ceremony in the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist center in London. He has since built his own Nichiren Buddhist retreat in Malibu, California.

Bloom once said: "I’m trying to be a man of integrity and live a good life… I think life is about humanity. If it isn’t about humanity, I don’t know what it’s about. It’s about respect for human life, all life. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what your religious beliefs are, or what the color of your skin is, or what your sexual preferences are."

And Buddhism is his pathway to a virtuous way of living. He says: "The philosophies behind [Buddhism] are very current today and are a way of finding some sort of peace… Faith, I understand, gives people that unshakeable sense of self to go about their lives and be a good person."

Politics

In 2008, Bloom officially endorsed Barack Obama and even worked at the Obama campaign’s California office, making phone calls and urging people to vote for him. He said: "Barack Obama, for me, is head and shoulders above anyone else and it’s time for a change and he brings the hope that the country needs."

Views

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 use energy-efficient lightbulbs. Bloom has been approached by UNICEF to act as an international ambassador. On 12 October 2009, Bloom was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He has been involved in the organization since 2007 and has visited schools and villages in Nepal in support of sanitation and education programs.

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.

Quotations: "I'm quite sensitive to women. I saw how my sister got treated by boyfriends. I read this thing that said when you are in a relationship with a woman, imagine how you would feel if you were her father. That's been my approach, for the most part."

"Theatre is something that I feel very important for an actor to keep doing. I think it keeps you sharp. But at the moment I'm intrigued by movies and filmmaking. It hasn't lured me away from the theatre, but I'm just going to try to ride this wave and then jump onto another and see how far it takes me."

"Fame and celebrity were not something that I contemplated because they were too far ahead to imagine."

"If life isn't about humanity, then tell me what it's about because I'd love to know."

"I see my career as a marathon. I don't see it as a sprint. Hopefully, I'll be around for a long time, to see my son grow up and have the opportunity to keep working on films."

Personality

Bloom has said that he tries "not to exclude [himself] from real life as much as possible." During filming in Morocco for the Kingdom of Heaven, Bloom rescued and adopted a dog, Sidi (a black Saluki mix with a white mark on his chest).

When Bloom was 11 years old, he was diagnosed with dyslexia. Bloom had a high IQ, according to IQ tests he took as a child, but reading and spelling proved difficult. Bloom found that drama school helped him with reading out loud. His teacher taught him to learn by thought, instead of just memorizing by reciting the text. This ultimately helped with connecting imagery to thoughts and making it easier to write and read. Bloom also found his focus was better on stage: “I think creativity is key to any child who has dyslexia.”

Bloom used to smoke, but quit in 2002, which caused him to start biting his nails instead.

Physical Characteristics: Orlando Bloom has a height of 5 ft 11 in or 180 cm, and a weight of 77 kg or 170 pounds. He has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.

Throughout the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the color of Legolas's eyes change from blue to brown. This is because the contact lenses Orlando Bloom was wearing scratched his corneas and could not be worn every day. In some of the shots, the post-production team digitally changed the color of his eyes.

Bloom has a tattoo of the Elvish word "nine" on his right wrist, written in letters of the fictional Tengwar Elvish 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. 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, and 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. He also broke some ribs while shooting The Lord of the Rings.

Interests

• yoga, photography, sculpting

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Gautama Buddha

• Politicians

  Barack Obama

• Writers

  The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

• Artists

  Peter Jackson

• Sport & Clubs

  Manchester United, Real Madrid

• Athletes

  David Beckham

• Music & Bands

  Jamiroquai, Jeff Buckley, Michael Jackson, Edie Brickell & New Bohemians

Connections

Bloom had an "on-and-off relationship" with American actress Kate Bosworth, from 2003 until splitting up for good in September 2006.

In late 2007, Bloom began dating Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr. They announced their engagement in June 2010 and were married the following month. Kerr gave birth to their son in January 2011 in Los Angeles. On 25 October 2013, Bloom and Kerr announced that they had separated several months earlier, and intended to end their marriage. The two were divorced by the end of 2013.

Bloom began dating pop singer Katy Perry shortly after the 73rd Golden Globe Awards in January 2016. However, the couple confirmed their split in February 2017. They resumed their relationship in April 2018. On 15 February 2019, Perry confirmed her engagement to Bloom.

Father:

Colin Stone

When he was 13 (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, became Orlando Bloom’s legal guardian after Harry Bloom’s death.

Mother:

Sonia Copeland Bloom

Bloom was encouraged by his mother to take art and drama classes.

colleague:

Evan Peters

fiancee:

Katy Perry

Singer Katy Perry and Bloom began dating in 2016 and broke up in February 2017, but have reportedly been back together since February 2018. However, Bloom hints their schedules make a true relationship hard: “She’s on tour, I’m doing a play, everything evolves. I have a lot of respect for her and a lot of deep feelings. So we will see.”

Prior to meeting Perry, Bloom wasn’t too familiar with her music or “artistic endeavors.” However, he was still “hit sideways” by her character after they met at the 2016 Golden Globes.

ex-wife:

Miranda Kerr

Following Bloom’s divorce from Miranda Kerr, Bloom started to prioritize raising his son and didn’t pursue roles as actively.

Once Kerr found a new partner, Bloom felt more at ease pursuing work and now finds that he isn’t the hot commodity he used to be. “People always want the new” and Bloom has admitted he has missed out on a number of roles he’s auditioned for since 2013.

Son:

Flynn Bloom

ex-girlfriend:

Kate Bosworth

step-father:

Harry Saul Bloom

Orlando initially believed that his biological father was his mother’s husband, the Jewish South African-born anti-Apartheid novelist Harry Saul Bloom (1913-1981), who died when Bloom was four years old.

Sister:

Samantha Bloom

colleague:

Cate Blanchett

colleague:

Hugh Dancy

colleague:

Naomi Watts

colleague:

Brad Pitt

colleague:

Shia LaBeouf

colleague:

Kaya Scodelario

References

• Orlando Bloom: The Biography
  2004