Orlando Bloom is a young English actor who has become a Hollywood superstar, thanks to films like The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. Having always wanted to be like the heroes of the fantasy stories and comics he read as a child, he sees acting as way to attain his dreams.Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom, named after the composer Orlando Gibbons, was born on January 13, 1977, in Canterbury, England. The man he thought of as his father, South African civil rights campaigner Harry Bloom, died when he was just four. After his death, Orlando and his sister Samantha, an actress who recently appeared in Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley, were raised by their mother, Sonia, and her friend Colin Stone, whom she later revealed was their real biological father. The young Bloom struggled at school because of his dyslexia, but did much better after joining the National Youth Theatre in London, earning a scholarship at the British American Drama Academy. During this time he supported himself with bit parts in television series like hospital drama Casualty.Orlando's first big screen role came in 1997, in the multiple award winning Wilde with Stephen Fry. At that stage, he turned down offers of further film roles order to concentrate on theater, appearing in productions of The Seagull, Twelfth Night, and Trojan Women. He spent three more years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama studying acting, photography, and sculpture. Just a few days before graduation, he learned that he had won the part of Legolas in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, a role which was to make his career.Bloom is a great fan of dangerous sports including sky diving, bungee jumping, surfing, and snowboarding. In 1998, this approach to life nearly ended his career when a three story fall led to spinal injuries which could have paralysed him. Fortunately he made an impressive recovery, though he still has a metal screw supporting his back and must regularly perform exercises to strengthen the damaged tissue. This didn't discourage him from getting involved in stunt work in The Lord of the Rings, which led to him breaking two ribs.He followed up the trilogy with the equally physically demanding Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, eager to star alongside his idol Johnny Depp. Bloom then went on to join Liam Neeson in Ridley Scott's crusader epic, Kingdom of Heaven, and later worked with Brad Pitt and Brian Cox in Troy. In his private life, however, he turned his attention to calmer pursuits, becoming a Nichiren Buddhist.Besides sword-wielding action movies, Bloom has appeared in several dramas, including Black Hawk Down, with Ewan McGregor and Eric Bana; Ned Kelly, with Heath Ledger, Geoffrey Rush, and Naomi Watts; and Elizabethtown, with Kirsten Dunst and Susan Sarandon. His next film, Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest, opened in June of 2006, and he is currently filming Seasons of Dust, a Depression-era drama. He will also appear in Superman Returns with Kate Bosworth, who stars as Lois Lane, and opposite Brandon Routh. Bloom and Bosworth met at a Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers premi re in 2002, and have been dating ever since. Bloom also has an independent thriller, Haven, opening later this year, which he acted in and co-produced.In May 2007 Orlando made a return to the big screen as the love interest of Keira Knightley in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: 'At World's End' which also starred Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, Keith Richards, as Jack's father and Bill Nighy as Davey Jones. With his naturally rugged looks Keith was the ideal father to Johnny's Jack.

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