Famous People Who Overcame Dyslexia
Orlando Bloom
 Born:
13 January 1977
Where: Canterbury, Kent, England
A cool customer from an early
age, Orlando would wander round Canterbury dressed in original
Sixties gear borrowed from the collection of a mate's mother.
It certainly suited his chiselled Byronic features. But he
was also a hard worker, at Canterbury's St Edmund's School
earning 8 O-levels and 3 A-levels (he got A-grades at Photography
and Art & Sculpture and a C at Religious Studies).
Yet it was acting that fired
his blood and, in 1993 at age 16, he went off to London where
he spent two seasons with the National Youth Theatre. This
gave him a social education, too. Hanging with older kids
he gained an early experience of London's clubland. Following
this, he won a one-year scholarship to BADA, the British American
Drama Academy which had already produced the likes of Jennifer
Ehle, Oliver Platt and David Schwimmer. Here he received a
crash course in theatre classics, starred in A Walk In The
Vienna Woods, and gained an agent. He also made his debut
on both TV and the Big Screen. First, in the long-running
hospital drama Casualty, he played a kid who mutilates himself
to gain attention. Then, in Wilde, he was a rent-boy propositioning
Stephen Fry's titular Oscar Wilde.
Though offers for parts were
flowing in, Orlando thought it best to continue his education
and so signed up for a 3-year course at the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama. Reading Shakespeare, Milton, Chekov and
Donne, this gave him what he considered to be his first real
education. It also helped him with a longstanding case of
dyslexia. Onstage, he honed his craft in
the likes of Twelfth Night, The Trojan Women, The Seagull,
Mephisto and Antigone - there could be few better starts for
an actor.
Filmography: |
|
| Black Hawk Down (2001) |
|
| Lord of the Rings: |
The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) |
| |
The Two Towers (2002) |
| |
The Return of the King (2003) |
| Ned Kelly (2003) |
|
| Pirates of the Caribbean: |
The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) |
| |
Dead Man's Chest (2006) |
| |
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (2007) |
| The Calcium Kid (2004) |
|
| Troy (2004) |
|
| Haven (2004) |
|
| Kingdom of Heaven (2005) |
|
| Elizabethtown (2005) |
|
| Paris, je t'aime (2005) |
|
| Kingdom Hearts II (2005) |
|
Additional Links:
The
Offical Orland Bloom site - Includes a personal greeting
from Orlando Bloom
Orland
Bloom Multimedia - A collection of multimedia, images,
articles & more!
Kingdom
of Heaven - Buzzalong: more Orlando media
The
Orlando Bloom Files - A fan site for Orlando Bloom
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