Birthday's to share this week : 11th - 17th January 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week? Orlando Bloom  does, on 13th January - check out the tribute to this Birthday Boy at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 11th January

• Amanda Peet - Born 1972, turns 43 - Actress
• Mary J. Blige - Born 1971, turns 44 - Singer | Songwriter | Actress
• Jason Connery - Born 1963, turns 52 - Actor | Producer | Director

Monday 12th January

• Rob Zombie - Born 1965, turns 50 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor | Singer | Songwriter | Composer
• Oliver Platt - Born 1960, turns 55 - Actor | Producer
• Anthony Andrews - Born 1948, turns 67 - Actor
• John Lasseter - Born 1957, turns 58 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Aaron Seltzer - Born 1974, turns 41 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Kirstie Alley - Born 1951, turns 64 - Actress | Producer

Tuesday 13th January

• Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Born 1961, turns 54 - Actress | Producer
• Orlando Bloom - Born 1977, turns 38 - Actor | Producer
• Liam Hemsworth - Born 1990, turns 25 - Actor
• Patrick Dempsey - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actor | Producer
• Bill Bailey - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actor | Comedian | Producer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer
• Michael Pena - Born 1976, turns 39 - Actor

Wednesday 14th January

• Jason Bateman - Born 1969, turns 46 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Carl Weathers - Born 1948, turns 67 - Actor | Director
• Steven Soderbergh - Born 1963, turns 52 - Director | Producer | Writer | Editor | Cinematographer
• Lawrence Kasdan - Born 1949, turns 66 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Faye Dunaway - Born 1941, turns 74 - Actress | Producer
• Emily Watson - Born 1967, turns 48 - Actress

Thursday 15th January

• James Nesbitt - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actor
• Mario Van Peebles - Born 1957, turns 58 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
• Ryan Corr - Born 1989, turns 26 - Actor

Friday 16th January

• John Carpenter - Born 1948, turns 67 - Director | Producer | Writer | Composer
• Debbie Allen - Born 1950, turns 65 - Actress | Director | Producer | Singer | Songwriter

Saturday 17th January 

• Zooey Deschanel - Born 1980, turns 35 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Jim Carey - Born 1962, turns 53 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer
• James Earl Jones - Born 1931, turns 84 - Actor
• Brian Helgeland - Born 1954, turns 54 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Leigh Wannell - Born 1977, turns 38 - Writer | Producer | Director | Actor

Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, England to Sonia Constance Josephine Copeland and Harry Saul Bloom. His mother was born in Kolkata, India and the man he knew in his early life as his father was a South African Political Activist - he died when Orlando was just four years old. He was raised by his mother, older sister Samantha and Colin Stone whom his mother announced when Orlando was thirteen years of age was his actual biological father.

The young Bloom attended St. Peter's Methodist Primary School, The King's School, and St. Edmund's School all in Canterbury. He struggled academically because he suffered with mild dyslexia and so immersed himself in pottery, sculpture and photography. He in turn studied poetry and prose  and with his sister gave many recitals of classic works and from the Bible. He was encouraged by his mother to take art and drama classes and in 1993 he relocated to London to complete drama, photography and sculpture classes at the Fine Arts College in Hampstead. He joined the National Youth Theatre and gained a scholarship to the British American Drama Academy.

He then began acting professionally securing roles in three episodes of BBC's hospital drama 'Casualty' and one episode of 'Midsomer Murders' before appearing with Stephen Fry in his 1997 big screen debut 'Wilde'. He then attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London to study acting. While there he fell three stories from a roof top terrace and broke his back. Beyond all expectations he made a quick and full recovery and returned to the stage. During one performance, Peter Jackson was sat in the audience, and following a post-show discussion he was cast in the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy which began filming two days after he graduated. The rest as they say, is history!

His role as Legolas in the 'LOTR' series propelled Bloom into the international spotlight and mainstream - a role he would reprise a further four times in 'The Two Towers' and 'Return of the King' and then again more recently in two of the three 'The Hobbit' films 'The Desolation of Smaug' and 'The Battle of the Five Armies'. Whilst shooting the first 'Rings' film he also secured a small role in Ridley Scott's 'Black Hawk Down' in 2001 and 'Ned Kelly' in 2003 with Heath Ledger and Geoffrey Rush.

Immediately following the success of 'LOTR' came another huge franchise beckoning with the first in the epic blockbuster 'Pirates of the Carribbean' series with 2003's 'Curse of the Black Pearl' opposite Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley. His role as Will Turner was subsequently reprised in 2006's 'Dead Man's Chest' and 2007's 'At World's End', and he is rumoured to be back again for 2017's 'Dead Men tell no Tales' having skipped 'On Stranger Tides' in the meantime.

Following on came 'Troy' in 2004 Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, and starring as 'Paris' alongside Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Peter O'Toole, with 'Kingdom of Heaven' a year later for Director Ridley Scott with Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson and Edward Norton. Coming after the epic blockbuster fare largely seen up to now came 'Elizabethtown' in 2005 with Kirsten Dunst, 'New York, I Love You' in 2009 in one of the twelve short films that comprise the complete film package, and then several other roles flying largely under the radar - 'Sympathy for Delicious', 'Main Street', 'The Good Doctor', 'Zulu' and the more widely known 'The Three Musketeers' in 2011. Next up is 'Digging for Fire' with Anna Kendrick, Sam Rockwell and Sam Elliott due later this year, and then 'Unlocked' thereafter with Director Michael Apted and also starring Noomi Rapace, Toni Collette, Michael Douglas and John Malkovich.

Bloom has 38 acting credits to his name and three Producer credits thus far. He has twenty award wins and a further 21 award nominations. He was associated with Actress Kate Bosworth from 2003-2006 and married to Miranda Kerr from 2010-2013 with whom they have a son - Flynn Christopher Blanchard Copeland Bloom born in 2011. He is a practising Buddhist, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador,  and is involved in environmental organisation 'Global Green'. As wells breaking his back, he has also broken his left arm (playing rugby), his right leg (skiing), his left leg (motorcycle accident), right wrist (snowboarding), several ribs (filming 'LOTR'), nose (playing rugby) and cracked his skull several times. His home in the Hollywood Hills was robbed by the 'Bling Ring' in 2009 during which US$500K in personal possessions were stolen - although mostly subsequently retrieved.

Orlando Bloom - very handy with a sword and a bow, rides a horse well, adept at close quarter combat, athletic and known for sword and sandal, epic fantasy, costume drama roles and possessing cheeky boyish good looks - Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-