Orlando Bloom Wallpaper

Description: On January 13, 1977 in Cantebury, Kent, England (about an hour south of London), Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom was introduced into the world. Little did people know, he would grow to be one of the most well-known actors in a couple of decades. As a child, Orlando had a nice childhood: good friends, good family, and a nice upbringing. "I... ( +expand to view full text )

Description: On January 13, 1977 in Cantebury, Kent, England (about an hour south of London), Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom was introduced into the world. Little did people know, he would grow to be one of the most well-known actors in a couple of decades. As a child, Orlando had a nice childhood: good friends, good family, and a nice upbringing. "I grew up in a big house with lots of land around it, so we used to play in the garden." Orlando also has an older sister, Samantha, who is four years older than him. Like most siblings on the planet, these two fought a lot as kids. "We're just starting to get along a lot better now that we're older. She did get me into clothes at a young age, though. She used to dress me and she'd get stuff from thrift shops. I had loafers and cowboy boots and cowboy shirts and, like, preppie-like check shirts." Orlando's mother, Sonia, ran a language school. She also helped Orlando with his performance abilities by entering him in Bible-reading and poetry-reciting competitions. His father, Harry, was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. Harry died when Orlando was four: "Harry was a great man and it was as if he'd done his job, then left the world." Recent press articles have stated that when Orlando was 13, his mother told him that Colin Stone, Orlando's guardian, was his biological father. After graduating from high school in 1993, 16-year old Orlando moved to London to join the National Youth Theatre. There, he developed his acting chops and landed a role on Casualty, a British television show. "That was my first-ever job, playing a self-mutilator - a guy who cuts himself for attention. It gave me a bit of experience. I remember shooting it in Bristol." He then recieved a scholarship to the British American Drama Academy, where he played the lead role in "A Walk in Vienna Woods." At that performance, he was noticed by an agent. This led to Orlando's first appearance on screen in the critically acclaimed Wilde in 1997. He only had one line in Wilde, but he was soon flooded with film and television offers. Instead of accepting the offers, he chose to furthur his education: "I always planned to go to drama school. I suppose I could have trained in the industry more. But, instead, I chose an environment that would be more conductive to experimenting." He was accepted into London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. At Guildhall, Orlando performed in the productions "Little Me," "A Month in the City," "Peer Gynt," "Mephisto," "Twelfth Night," "Trojan Women," "The Seagull," "Three Sisters," "Recruiting Officer," "Antigone," "Uncle Vanya," "A Night Out," and "Mystery Plays." Finally, he appeared once again on screen in 2000, playing Peter Drinkwater in the television series Midsomer Murders. The episode, called "Judgement Day," was about brutal pitchfork murders of a local thief and womanizer. Two days before graduating from Guildhall, Orlando was informed that Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, had cast Orlando in the role of Legolas. "When I found out I had the role it was a surreal moment. Amazing." All rejoiced, and thanks to this happening, Orlando spent the next eighteen months in New Zealand, shooting his scenes in all three movies of the Rings trilogy. Orlando's nice brown hair was replaced by nice blond wigs, and his nice brown eyes were transformed blue with contact lenses for him to complete the look for Legolas, his elf-archer character. According to an interview, Orlando was the first cast member on set: "The first thing they did was put a bow in my hand!" Orlando had to intensively train for the physical role: "I started training with a bow and arrow in order to get archery going. And horse-riding training. And then swordplay. And paddle training." He also studied Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai to find the same way of walking and posture that would give Legolas the aura of focus. After the success of The Fellowship of the Ring, Orlando became an instant celebrity. He won the "Best Breakthrough Performance" in the 2001 Internet Movie Awards, the "Best Debut" at the 2002 Empire Awards, the "Best Breakthrough Male Performance" at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards, and was featured in Teen People's 25 Hottest Stars Under 25. More film offers came up, and Orlando took several of them. Orlando signed on to play Private Todd Blackburn in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, and to transform into Blackburn, Orlando picked up a southern American accent, shaved his head, and attended a Georgian boot camp. Next up, Orlando began shooting scenes in the summer of 2002, playing Joe Byrne in Ned Kelly, a film that recounts the about the life and criminal career of Australian-Irish outlaw Ned Kelly. Following that, Orlando prepared for his first leading role in a film: The Calcium Kid. Orlando plays Jimmy, a milkman-turned-boxer who has a chance to win the world boxing title. Orlando trained for the role when he was working on Ned Kelly, and then got "really buff and fit" in London. In the fall of 2002, Orlando signed on to co-star with Johnny Depp in Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Playing Will Turner, Orlando had to learn fencing, and spent time in Burbank, Los Angeles, to film the movie. Because of the filming schedule for this movie, Orlando was unable to attend several premieres for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which was released December 2002. Pirates of the Caribbean was a summer hit, soaring to the top of the box office. Two Pirates sequels are now in the running. Shortly after, Orlando then signed on to play Paris in the 2004 film Troy, an epic film directed by Wolfgang Peterson. In this film, Orlando performs with a stellar cast, which includes Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, and Sean Bean. With his character wielding yet again a sword and even a bow and arrow, Orlando physically trained for the film that recounted the Trojan war. Like Pirates of the year before, Troy was a summer blockbuster hit of 2004. Orlando now has several upcoming films. All films aside, Orlando used to describe himself as an "adrenaline junkie" - in his younger days, he enjoyed extreme sports like sky diving, bungee jumping, paragliding, surfing and snowboarding. Because of his adventurous nature, he's had little mishaps here and there: "I've broken my back, my ribs, my nose, both my legs, my arm, my wrist, a finger a toe and I've cracked my skull three times." However, he says that there's "a little more going on than just that." Orlando is a "complete technophobe," which means that he dislikes computers, email, the internet, and all that jolly stuff. And of course, all the little interesting tidbits pop up here and there, such as him enjoying listening to Jeff Buckley, Beck, Ben Harper, and Jurassic 5. Orlando Bloom is probably commonly known as "that elf guy from Lord of the Rings," or "that guy who fell out of the helicopter in Black Hawk Down," or "that Orlando Bloom guy," or whatnot. Well, he's just a talented human being who happens to be well known. And a lot of people admire him.