Orlando Bloom

This dashing leading man started out onstage in his native Britain but had only a handful of TV and film roles under his belt when he landed the career-making role of a butt-kicking elf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sporting a blond wig and chiseled cheekbones, Bloom became an overnight pretty-boy sensation. He continued to catch viewers' eyes in the surprise 2003 blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean. At this point, the handsome actor seemed poised to become the Next Big Thing. However, his earlier successes were in ensemble films and he stumbled when required to carry a film alone (the action flop Kingdom of Heaven and the middling romantic comedy Elizabethtown). But Bloom remained in the spotlight, thanks to his winning personality, on-again off-again romance with starlet Kate Bosworth, and two high-profile (and high-grossing) Pirates sequels.