Early life
Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, England. His mother, Sonia Constance Josephine (née Copeland), was born in the British section of Calcutta, India, the daughter of Betty Constance Josephine Walker and Francis John Copeland, who was a physician and surgeon. Through her, Bloom is a cousin of photographer Sebastian Copeland.[1][4] Bloom's maternal grandmother's family lived in Tasmania, Australia and India, and were of English descent, some of them having originally come from Kent.[1][5] During his childhood, Bloom was told that his father was his mother's husband, South African-born Jewish anti-Apartheid novelist Harry Saul Bloom; but when he was thirteen (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.[6] Stone, the principal of the Concorde International language school,[7] was made Orlando Bloom's legal guardian after Harry Bloom's death.[6] Bloom, who is named after the 17th century composer Orlando Gibbons,[1] has one sister, Samantha Bloom, who was born in 1975.
Bloom was raised in the Church of England.[8] As a child, Orlando managed to get through St Edmund's School in Canterbury despite his dyslexia.[6][9] He was encouraged by his mother to take art and drama classes.[6] In 1993, he moved to London to follow a two year A Level course in Drama, Photography and Sculpture at Fine Arts College, Hampstead. He then joined the National Youth Theatre, spending two seasons there and earning a scholarship to train at the British American Drama Academy.[10] Bloom began acting professionally with television roles in episodes of Casualty and Midsomer Murders,[6] and subsequently made his film debut in Wilde (1997), opposite Stephen Fry, before entering the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he studied acting. In 1998, he fell three stories while trying to reach the roof of terrace of a friend's house, and was told he would not regain the ability to walk.[6] However, he made a recovery and was able to walk out of the hospital on crutches within twelve days.[11] Bloom had steel plates inserted into his backbone to support it, which have since been removed, except for a single screw. He regularly practices yoga and Pilates to strengthen his back.
