Growing up in the historic English cities of Canterbury and London may explain why dashing young actor Orlando Bloom is so well-suited for epic films like the upcoming Kingdom of Heaven.
Once upon a time, in the verdant county of Kent, in the city of Canterbury, England, a boy was christened Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom, after 17th-century composer Orlando Gibbons. Alas, this Orlando, being from Canterbury, where Geoffrey Chaucer based his famously unfinished tales, would soon take a more dramatic turn with his life. Having excelled in local plays at an early age, he moved to London at 16 to attend drama school, a journey that not only transformed the boy into a man, but also into a star born for epics on the silver screen. In London, he met the wizard behind The Lord of the Rings, who cast Bloom as the elfin Legolas Greenleaf. Soon, our hero was a prince of Hollywood, performing alongside the kings: with Viggo Mortensen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, and Brad Pitt in Troy. His next big role may be as the teenage 007 in the upcoming James Bond movie. In the meantime, the 27-year-old sensation can be seen in this month's Kingdom of Heaven, a typically Orlando-esque adventure about a common man who serves a doomed king, falls in love with a forbidden queen, and rises to knighthood. Herewith, Bloom tells the equally captivating story of his own life in England.

Tale #1: The Youngster Meets His Inner Chaucer
"In Canterbury, there is a place called the Canterbury Tales, which is like a little walk-through museum where you see all the different characters described. The mannequins are all dressed up, and there are even the sounds and smells of the times. It's quaint."

Tale #2: The Lad Leaves Home And Becomes A Londoner