Orlando Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, on 13 January 1977. His mother, Sonia, ran a language school for foreign students, while his father, Harry, was a Professor of Law at the University of Kent. Harry, a South African Jew born in 1913, was an anti-apartheid activist and author. Harry was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand and worked as an advocate in Johannesburg. His first novel, Episode (later titled Transvaal Episode), published in 1956, described an uprising in a township following the ANC's campaign of defiance in 1952-3. The book was and Harry's second novel, Whittaker's Wife, was written while he was behind bars serving a 3-month sentence. In 1963, he exiled himself to Canterbury.
Harry died in 1981 when Orlando was four, leaving Sonia to raise him and his sister Samantha, two years his senior. At the age of 12, Orlando spent a Christmas in Boston with family. His cousin, an art director working in Los Angeles, rented some videos, including The Hustler and Stand By Me. This made him decide to become an actor. When he was 13, he was told that Harry was not his biological father. His real father was Colin Stone, his appointed guardian and someone he'd known as a friend of the family.
