Claire Bloom Biography

Never a top star in the commercial sense, Bloom excelled in a series of performances in film, on the radio and on the stage over nearly 60 years.
 Born into a second generation Jewish immigrant family, with grandparents from Latvia and Germany, Bloom lived an itinerant life with her family before WW2 as her father looked for work.

As a child, Bloom loved the classics of English literature and, on seeing the 1936 film of 'Romeo and Juliet', started to act.
During the war, Bloom lived with an uncle in America, and at 12 started to audition for parts on stage and radio. At war's end, Bloom trained at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art in London.

She was spotted by a theatre agent at 15 and left school to take the role of a prostitute in 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater', and to work at the BBC.

Bloom was single minded in her work and had no time for parties or men. A year later, she was cast as Ophelia in 'Hamlet' at Stratford. More Shakespearean roles followed.
Charlie Chaplin noticed Bloom in a magazine article and wanted her as a leading lady for his ballet film, 'Limelight'. The film was not a success, but it put Bloom's face on the cover of Time and then Life magazines. Suddenly, she was famous and remains so till today.

Following this, she appeared in a number of costume dramas including Laurence Olivier's 'Richard III' as the Lady Anne in 1955, 'Alexander the Great' in 1956, 'The Brothers Karamazov' and 'The Buccaneer' in 1958, 'Anna Karenina' (1961) and 'Wuthering Heights' in 1962.

She also appeared in two films with Richard Burton - 'Look Back in Anger' (1959) and 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' in 1965.
Bloom then began playing more contemporary roles in the 1960s such as 'The Chapman Report' (1962), the Oscar-winning 'Charly' in 1968 and the 1963 film 'The Haunting', for which Bloom is still best-known for today.

She also appeared in two Woody Allen films - 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' (1989) and 'Mighty Aphrodite' in 1995. Her most recent Hollywood role was as Queen Mary in 'The King's Speech' in 2010. She is set to appear in 'While we were here' and 'Max Rose' in 2012.

Bloom has also enjoyed a lucrative TV career with notable performances in 'Brideshead Revisited' (1981), 'Backstairs at the White House' (1979) and as Joy Gresham, the wife of CS Lewis in 'Shadowland' (1985), for which she won the best actress Bafta.
Her most recent TV appearances include the 2006 version of 'The Ten Commandments', 'New Tricks' in 2008 and in December 2009, she appeared in David Tennant's last episode as Doctor Who.

She has also written two memoirs about her life and career with her first 'Limelight and After: The Education of an Actress' being released in 1982. This focused on her film and stage appearances.

In 1996, her second book 'Leaving a Doll's House: A Memoir' went into detail about her romantic relationships with Olivier and Burton as well as her complicated marriage to Roth.

Bloom married three times; to Rod Steiger, with whom she had her only daughter Anna, to Hilllard Elkins and novelist Philip Roth, who she divorced in 1995.