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ORLANDO BLOOM BIOGRAPHY |
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Orlando Bloom was born on January 13, 1977 in
Canterbury, England. Orlando Bloom began reading J.R.R.
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a teenager before
abandoning the books in favor of sports and girls. Orlando Bloom
did not complete the three volumes until his early twenties:
first in print, and then on camera as one of a handful of actors
carefully selected for New Line Cinema's highly anticipated,
$270 million, three-film screen adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord
of the Rings. The international success of the trilogy's first
installment, The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), made Bloom a
sought-after young actor. The talented Brit works the talk show
circuit, mugs in magazines, and appears at every important award
show -- always with a playful demeanor and an uncorrupted smile
that suggest he could still be just as easily fulfilled by rugby
and romance. Orlando Bloom was raised in Canterbury, Kent, with
his sister, Samantha. Their mother taught them to enjoy the arts
and encouraged them to participate in the local Kent Festival.
Orlando Bloom began by reciting poetry and prose, displaying an
advanced sensitivity to tone and modulation. Yet, it wasn't this
precociousness or his frequent trips to the theater that
influenced Bloom to become a professional actor. Orlando Bloom
was in awe of larger-than-life characters -- from Superman to
the members of the A-Team -- and knew the only way to become one
was to play one on the screen. At 16, Orlando Bloom relocated to
London and performed with the National Youth Theatre for two
seasons before winning a scholarship to train with the British
American Drama Academy. At the conclusion of his term with the
group, Orlando Bloom played the lead in A Walk in the Vienna
Woods, and secured an agent. This led to small roles on British
television and an appearance in Brian Gilbert's Wilde (1997).
Wishing to further his education, Orlando Bloom then enrolled at
London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama (the
alma mater of Ewan McGregor, Joseph Fiennes, and Ben Chaplin,
among others). There, Orlando Bloom acted in several plays,
including Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Chekov's Three Sisters,
and Sophocles' Antigone.
While still in school, Orlando Bloom was trying to make it onto
a friend's rooftop terrace when he fell three stories and broke
his back. The accident almost paralyzed the actor, but surgery
let him walk out of the hospital on crutches. Soon afterward,
all his peers auditioned for coveted roles in the upcoming The
Lord of the Rings trilogy. The extensive and selective casting
process took place in every English-speaking country. Orlando
Bloom good-naturedly tried out for the role of Faramir, a
character introduced in the second film, The Two Towers (2002).
After meeting with the project's director, Peter Jackson, Bloom
was not cast as Faramir. Instead, Jackson asked that he read for
the part of Legolas Greenleaf, a much more prominent figure who
is featured in all three films. The director offered Orlando
Bloom the role a few weeks later, only two days before the
burgeoning star graduated from drama school. Legolas, Tolkien's
warrior elf, has super-human strength, swift reflexes, and
heightened sensory awareness. To play him, Orlando Bloom trained
in archery, swordplay, and horseback riding for two months prior
to shooting. Orlando Bloom 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. As
Legolas, Orlando Bloom is immortal, and at 2,931 years old, is a
tall, athletic, and skilled fighter of evil -- he truly is
larger than life.
After finishing The Lord of the Rings -- all three films, The
Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the
King, were shot simultaneously over 18 months in New Zealand --
Orlando Bloom headed to Morocco for a role in Ridley Scott's
Black Hawk Down. The film chronicles the horrific Battle of
Mogadishu in 1993, in which a "simple" mission left 18 U.S.
soldiers dead and 73 wounded. Debuting his American accent,
Orlando Bloom plays a neophyte ranger who breaks his back after
falling 70 feet from a helicopter. This combat film opened only
a few weeks after The Fellowship of the Ring and received equal
acclaim. Following these blockbusters, Orlando Bloom performed
in several quirky films with limited releases such as Lullaby of
Clubland (2001). But it wouldn't be long before Orlando Bloom
was blowing up the box-office once again with the 2003 crowd-pleaser
The Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. By
the time Orlando Bloom showed up opposite Brad Pitt and Black
Hawk Dawn costar Eric Bana in the 2004 historical epic Troy, his
intense star-power was unquestionable. |
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