Orlando Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, England on January 13, 1977. Orlando attended St. Edmunds School in Canterbury but struggled in many courses because of dyslexia. He did embrace the arts, however, and enjoyed pottery, photography and sculpturing. He also participated in school plays and was active at his local theater. As a teen, Orlando landed his first job: he was a clay trapper at a pigeon shooting range. He took up thearter plays and he then attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. It was there, in 1998, that Orlando fell three stories from a rooftop terrace and broke his back. Despite fears that he would be permanently paralyzed, he quickly recovered and returned to the stage. As fate would have it, seated in the audience one night in 1999 was a director named Peter Jackson. After the show, he met with Orlando and asked him to audition for his new set of movies. After graduating from Guildhall, Orlando began work on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, spending 18 months in New Zealand bringing to life "Legolas", a part which made him a household name.
Some Major Film Lead Roles
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) as Will Turner
Love and Other Disasters (2006) as Hollywood Paolo
Elizabethtown (2005) as Drew Baylor
Kingdom of Heaven (2005) as Balian
Haven (2004) as Shy
Troy (2004) as Paris
The Calcium Kid (2004) as Jimmy Connelly
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) as Legolas
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) as Will Turner
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) as Legolas Greenleaf
Black Hawk Down (2001) as Todd Blackburn
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) as Legolas Greenleaf
