will smith biography britannica

Will Smith transitioned from successful rapper to Hollywood A-lister, starring on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air before headlining such films as Independence Day , Men in Black , and Ali .

1968-present

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Music career, movies and tv shows, wife jada pinkett smith and children, who is will smith.

After Will Smith met Jeff Townes at age 16, the duo launched a highly successful rap career as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Smith starred on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for six seasons, before establishing himself as a Hollywood A-lister with Bad Boys (1995) and Independence Day (1996). He has since headlined such popular films as Men in Black (1997) and Hitch (2005) and earned Oscar nominations for Ali (2001) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). Smith also earned acclaim for Concussion (2015), before returning to action fare with Suicide Squad (2016).

FULL NAME: Willard Carroll Smith Jr. BORN: September 25, 1968 BIRTHPLACE: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania SPOUSE: Sheree Zampino (1992-1995) and Jada Pinkett Smith (1997-present; separated) CHILDREN: Trey, Jaden , and Willow ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra

Smith was born Willard Carroll Smith Jr. on September 25, 1968, in Philadelphia to mother Caroline, a school board employee, and father Willard C. Smith, a refrigeration company owner. His middle-class upbringing saw him attend the strict Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School, despite his family's observation of the Baptist faith. He went on to attend Overbrook High School.

His West Philadelphia neighborhood was a melting pot of cultures where Orthodox Jews co-existed with a large Muslim population. Smith was a good student whose charming personality and quick tongue were renowned for getting him out of trouble, a trait for which he soon gained the nickname "Prince.''

Smith began rapping at age 12, emulating heroes like Grandmaster Flash but tingeing his rhymes with a comedic element that would later become his trademark. At 16 Smith met future collaborator Jeff Townes at a party. The pair became friends, and the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince was born.

As teens, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince began producing music but steered clear of the gangsta rap sound that was emerging from the West Coast by groups like N.W.A. The Fresh Prince rapped about teenage preoccupations in a clean, curse-free style that middle America found safe and entertaining. The pair's first single, "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble," was a hit in 1986. Their 1987 debut album, Rock the House , hit the Billboard Top 200, and made Smith a millionaire before the age of 18. The early success put any thoughts of attending college out of Smith's mind.

Early on, it was reported that Smith had turned down a scholarship to Boston's elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but Smith later dispelled the rumor when he told an interviewer: "My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed Black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college."

In 1988, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince continued their success with the album He's The DJ , I'm The Rapper . Featuring the radio-friendly singles "Parents Just Don't Understand," "Brand New Funk," and "Nightmare on My Street," the album won the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance. It was followed in 1989 by And In This Corner..., which continued the pair's rise to stardom.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Two years later, Smith began his crossover into acting. Drawing on his experiences with fledgling stardom, NBC signed Smith to headline a sitcom about a street-smart kid from Philadelphia who moves in with stuffy relatives in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air. Playing on his rapper persona, and at times featuring his friend Towne, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a huge success that ran for six seasons.

Meanwhile, Smith and Towne continued producing music, their 1991 album Homebase producing the hits "Summertime" and "Ring My Bell." Their final album together, 1993's Code Red , was notable for "Boom! Shake the Room."

Where the Day Takes You and Six Degrees of Separation

While still making The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , Smith began a second crossover into movies. Small roles in the drama Where The Day Takes You (1992) and the comedy Made In America (1993) were followed by a critically acclaimed lead in Six Degrees of Separation (1993). Holding his own alongside Donald Sutherland , Stockard Channing and Ian McKellen , Smith played a street-wise gay hustler who cons his way through elite circles.

Smith's first steps into superstardom came with his next film, Bad Boys (1995). The high-budget cop movie saw him team up with comic Martin Lawrence , breaking away from the Black-cop-white-cop formula that had been so successful for Beverly Hills Cop and the Lethal Weapon series. The two Black leads proved an instant success and Smith — playing the smooth lady killer to Lawrence's clown — was established as leading man material.

Independence Day

Smith next took on the epic sci-fi flick Independence Day (1996), a role that confirmed him as a major player in Hollywood and the go-to guy for summer blockbusters. He played a pilot leading the counterattack against invading alien forces, and his comedic talents effortlessly transformed into the pithy one-liners all action heroes need to be able to drop while dispatching their enemies.

Men in Black and Enemy of the State

Smith fought aliens again in his next blockbuster, the comic sci-fi action film, Men in Black (1997). Playing opposite Tommy Lee Jones , Smith chewed up the screen as the new recruit to Jones' old hand. Smith rapped the theme song, and its inclusion on his 1997 solo album, Big Willie Style, brought the multi-talented actor more success. Another blockbuster followed with the slick conspiracy thriller Enemy of the State (1998), which earned Smith an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture.

Wild Wild West and The Legend of Bagger Vance

The string of hits came to an end in 1999 with Wild Wild West , a sci-fi cowboy Western co-starring Kevin Kline. Despite the film's lackluster box-office performance, the track Smith cut for the film became a hit on his 1999 album, Willennium . The golf movie The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) was his next big film, with Smith playing the caddie to Matt Damon 's out-of-sorts swinger.

Oscar Nomination for Ali

The 2001 biopic Ali , based on boxing legend Muhammad Ali , gave Smith the opportunity to regain his big-screen swagger. His turn as the charismatic boxing great saw Smith put in the performance of his life, training and disciplining himself to extraordinary lengths to do justice to the athleticism — and ego — of the titular character. The film underwhelmed at the box office despite a record-breaking opening day, but Smith's performance was strong enough to garner him his first Academy Award nomination.

Men in Black II , Bad Boys II , and I, Robot

A couple of sequels were next, with Smith reprising his roles in Men In Black II (2002) and Bad Boys II (2003). Neither was a flop, but neither matched the impressive box-office take of its predecessor. Staying with the sci-fi action theme, Smith moved on to I, Robot in 2004. The Isaac Asimov adaptation featured Smith as a futuristic cop investigating a murder by a robot and then battling a robot insurgency. The film performed well, grossing more than $144 million domestically.

Hitch and The Pursuit of Happyness

Smith's smooth-talking charmer persona was put to use in the 2005 romantic comedy Hitch, playing a dating consultant who helps luckless guys with their romantic moves. Smith also penned the theme song and included it on his 2005 album, Lost and Found . Hitch was a massive success, and it was followed in 2006 by another critical and financial hit, The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). Starring alongside his real-life son Jaden , Smith captivated audiences with the story of a single father who has to build a life from scratch. He received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance.

I Am Legend

In 2007, Smith starred in I Am Legend , a remake of the Charlton Heston film Omega Man , in which he battled bloodthirsty vampires. The film became a national and international hit.

Hancock , Seven Pounds , and Men in Black 3

Smith then took on the dual role of actor and producer for Hancock (2008), in which he played an alcoholic anti-superhero, and for Seven Pounds (2008), about a man who sets out to change the lives of seven people. He also helped produce two more films released that year, Lakeview Terrace and The Secret Life of Bees .

After a hiatus, Smith returned to the big screen in 2012 with Men in Black 3 , followed by a turn as a military commander in the critically panned M. Night Shyamalan sci-fi flick After Earth , which co-starred Smith's son Jaden. He then made a cameo as Lucifer in the film Winter's Tale (2014).

Focus , Concussion , and Suicide Squad

Smith's next leading role came with the 2015 heist caper Focus , co-starring Margot Robbie . Later in the year, he starred as Dr. Bennet Omalu in the sports drama Concussion , earning a Golden Globe nomination for his role as a doctor fighting to raise awareness about head trauma in NFL players.

In 2016, Smith starred in the DC Comics blockbuster hit Suicide Squad , which became his most successful film since 1996's Independence Day . The same year, he also took on a more somber role as a father who loses his young daughter in the drama Collateral Beauty . Although a follow-up endeavor, Bright (2017), was thoroughly panned by critics, audiences responded more positively to the urban fantasy crime flick.

Aladdin , Gemini Man , and Bad Boys for Life

In February 2019, Smith announced that he would not be returning for the Suicide Squad sequel. Around that time, a commercial during the Grammy Awards revealed him as a wisecracking Genie in Guy Ritchie's live-action adaptation of Disney's Aladdin , which went on to top $1 billion at the global box office. Next up was Ang Lee's Gemini Man , which had Smith pulling double duty — with help from digital technology — as a 50-year-old assassin assigned to kill a 23-year-old version of himself.

The A-lister closed out the year by voicing super agent Lance Sterling in the animated Spies in Disguise , alongside Tom Holland , before opening 2020 with a return to his successful cop-buddy franchise in Bad Boys for Life .

Smith has been married twice. His first marriage, to Sheree Zampino in 1992, lasted only three years but produced a son, Willard Smith III (b. 1992), also known as Trey. He has been married to actress Jada Pinkett Smith since 1997. The couple's son, Jaden , was born in 1998, and their daughter, Willow , was born in 2000.

Smith leans politically liberal and has made donations to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama . Smith is a fan of chess and video games and is known to take his mother on vacation every year, usually to the Canyon Ranch spa in Tucson, Arizona.

• I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want ... I believe I can create whatever I want to create.
• I want to do good. I want the world to be better because I was here.
• I have a great time with my life and I want to share it. I love living. I think that's infectious. It's something that you can't fake.
• Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity. Why would you be realistic?
• There's no easy way round it. Your talent is going to fail if you're not skilled.
• I've never really viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic. While the other guys sleeping, I'm working. While the other guy is eating, I'm working.
• The first step before anybody else in the world believes it is you have to believe it.
• There's no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A.
• Don't chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard.
• I'm a student of patterns, at heart I'm a physicist.

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The Great Performers Issue

Will Smith Is Done Trying to Be Perfect

“Strategizing about being the biggest movie star in the world — that is all completely over. ”

Will Smith Credit... Ruven Afanador for The New York Times

Supported by

By David Marchese

• Dec. 9, 2021

Will Smith’s superpower as a performer — as a movie star — has always been his radiating charisma. Who else could have credibly portrayed Muhammad Ali, the most charismatic man ever? In “King Richard,” Smith transmutes that gift into something subtler but just as powerful in his portrayal of Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena. (Smith, as he was eager to acknowledge, was supported in the film by Saniyya Sidney as Venus, Demi Singleton as Serena and Aunjanue Ellis as the girls’ mother and Williams’s wife at the time, Oracene Price.) Richard Williams, as embodied by Smith, is a man who has been physically bowed but not beaten. He has a limp from a racist attack as a child; his carriage is tense, a little unsure, as if always on alert for a sucker punch. He’s someone who has spent time beneath the underdog. And yet when it comes to Williams’s daughters and his dreams for them of tennis greatness, Smith invests his character with his trademark on-screen self-assurance. That Smith, who is 53 and who this autumn published a searching memoir, “Will,” was able to express those disparate traits so effectively is something he attributes to the work, precipitated by that book, that he has lately put into himself. “I wouldn’t have been able to play Richard Williams in this way,” Smith says, “before I had examined my life and understood so many aspects of my childhood and how that affected the decisions I made as a parent.”

There’s a key scene in “King Richard” in which Richard Williams talks about getting beaten up by a gang of white men as a child and seeing his father run away rather than help him. Not wanting to repeat that act of cowardice is ostensibly what drove his behavior toward his daughters. In your book, you write about seeing your dad hit your mom and how the cowardice that you felt for not intervening subsequently drove your own behaviors. When it came time to play Richard Williams, had you made any links between those situations? Absolutely. As an actor, you’re trying to find the aspects of the character that you most innately understand. So I could relate to Richard Williams similarly as I related to my father. I could relate to both their senses of disrespect. They felt unsupported and disrespected, and that was central for both of them. I started finding all those parallels, and also what happened is I got better as an actor during that time. I was organizing my memoir while I was working on “King Richard.” These two things have gone together. My ability as an actor expanded in the last 18 months. It’s one of the most exponential jumps in emotional comprehension that I’ve ever had.

Good acting can be such an intangible thing. What are you looking at as evidence of improvement? At the core, acting is what can you comprehend emotionally. And when you comprehend it emotionally, do you understand it enough to feel it and create interesting behavior around it? So something like Richard Williams’s walk: Now, you can mimic someone’s walk and look authentic. It’s a completely different thing when you know why the person is hunching over versus the stand-up-comedian version of it just mimicking it. Understanding that was the leap that happened: When you know why Richard Williams’s left leg hurts, what happened with the spike that got driven through it, that, as an actor, is the 90 percent of the iceberg that’s below the surface. When you’ve programmed it deeply, those things have corresponding vibrations for the audience that they don’t even realize.

What does your walk say about you? Ha! I guess if you were to psychoanalyze my walk from eight years ago, it’d be two things: My walk is really fast, and it’s high. I’m trying to create a joyful persona, and it’s because a long time ago I realized how you enter a space is going to determine how the space reacts to you. So my walk is joyful, but it’s also somewhat performative and pre-emptive. It’s like, I don’t want somebody to feel like they have to punch me in my face. I want to walk into a room and get as many friends as quickly as possible.

You said “eight years ago.” Does your walk say something different now? At this point in my life, I’m comfortable in my body. I’m OK with things not being perfect. I don’t have to look right. My mind isn’t drifting to what people are thinking when I walk in anymore. It’s much less performative and conscious.

Being a parent and a husband involves its own kind of performance. How did you think about those identities for Richard Williams, and how might they be different from how you, Will Smith, perform them? Richard Williams wants to gain respect, but he’s not trying to gain approval. There was a part of me, when I started, that desperately craved the approval of the world. That bleeds into everything. I wanted my children to align themselves to obtain the approval of the world. Richard Williams: very different. He was training his kids that they would most likely be getting brutalized by the world, and you don’t need their approval, but you’re going to have their respect. Which made him much more insular, and his push for the security of the family was of a higher value than the presentation of the family to the world. That was a serious difference between our parenting.

Throughout your career, you’ve been strategic about your choice of roles. For a long time you picked what you were doing based on the goal of wanting to be the biggest movie star in the world. What’s your plan now? And how did “King Richard” fit into it? Strategizing about being the biggest movie star in the world — that is all completely over. I realized that in order to enjoy my time here and in order to be helpful, it’s much more about self-examination. I want to take roles where I get to look at myself, where I get to look at my family, I get to look at ideas that are important to me. Everything in my life is more centered on spiritual growth and elevation. So, for example, one of the most important things to me during this process is, I want to make sure that Aunjanue Ellis and Saniyya and Demi are elevated and the world sees their work. I’m not looking for people to clap for me. I have two young actresses that this is their first time around on this level. I want them to feel loved and protected. I want Aunjanue to get her flowers. That is where my attention is in this process versus my attention being on box office or awards. I have as close to zero self-interest in that area as could possibly be.

What was the idea that Richard Williams represented that was important to you? Aunjanue referred to Richard and Oracene: She said that they were co-conspirators in this crazy dream. To me, everybody wants to have a crazy dream. You have to have fun with the absolute insanity of what you want to create in your life, unify your family around it and go for it. That’s the fun of life. We can’t all expect to hit it how the Williams family hit it, but I’m loving shining light on the idea of a family going for it.

You’ve also got a new Disney+ documentary series about the planet Earth. What’s an idea from that series that’s got you jazzed? I’m starting to see how science and spirituality are kind of the same thing. Religion and science, definitely at a subatomic level — that is all the definition of God, right? Everybody’s looking for the same thing. I grew up in a very religious household; my grandmother was all the way Jesus’ homegirl. My mind has always been scientific. I’m starting to see how those things fuse together. When I go and stand next to a volcano and I feel the pounding of that bass shaking my body — the fear that I feel and the awe of nature is deeply spiritual. The exploration for me is relating to nature scientifically but also, like with the volcano, spiritually.

You sound so intentional about everything. Do you ever do stuff just for fun? Almost never. It might be something I’ll have to start to let go of. I’ve been letting go of outcomes. I used to be wildly goal- and target-oriented. But my intention is still really firm. My life is pretty structured. I’m always up from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. reading and meditating on specific things or dreams and ideas that I want to put into the world. I’m very organized in that way. I guess the illusion of control settles my mind. I hope.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

David Marchese is a staff writer for the magazine and the columnist for Talk. Recently he interviewed Brian Cox about the filthy rich, Dr. Becky about the ultimate goal of parenting and Tiffany Haddish about God’s sense of humor.

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Will Smith (I)

IMDbPro Starmeter Top 500 173

• Contact info
• 96 wins & 186 nominations total

Will Smith Through the Years

Photos 1616

• Producer (1994-1996)
• 1995–1996 • 24 eps

• Robert Neville

• executive producer, producer
• Post-production
• executive producer
• In Development
• Pre-production
• In Production

• producer (p.g.a.)

• 50 episodes

• Mike Lowrey
• Nicky Barnes

• Richard Williams

• Lt. Mike Lowrey

• Lance (voice)

• Henry Brogan

• Special Appearance in 'The Jawaani Song' and 'Radha Teri Chunri''

• Will Smith (singing voice)

• created by ...
• 81 episodes
• In-development projects at IMDbPro

Personal details

• The Fresh Prince
• 6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
• September 25 , 1968
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
• Spouses Jada Pinkett Smith December 31, 1997 - present (separated, 2 children)
• Children Jaden Smith
• Parents Caroline Bright
• Relatives Pam Smith (Sibling)
• Other works Appeared in Diana King 's music video, "Shy guy".
• 1 Biographical Movie
• 3 Print Biographies
• 1 Portrayal
• 26 Interviews
• 48 Articles
• 15 Pictorials
• 49 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia He has solved Rubik's cubes in both The Alma Matter (1993) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) . This is a real talent of his; he has shown on live TV that he can solve a Rubik's Cube in under 55 seconds.
• Quotes [on his first season of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990) ] "I was trying so hard. I would memorize the entire script, then I'd be lipping everybody's lines while they were talking. When I watch those episodes, it's disgusting. My performances were horrible."
• Trademarks Often plays a policeman or an agent
• Fresh Prince
• Salaries Emancipation ( 2022 ) $35,000,000

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Will Smith Biography

Will Smith, an immensely popular American actor, began his career as a rap artist before making a successful transition into the world of movies. With a string of blockbuster films and numerous awards to his name, including an Academy Award and four Grammy Awards, Smith has proven himself to be a versatile and talented performer. From his debut in “Six Degrees of Separation” to his iconic role in the “Men in Black” series, Smith’s power-packed performances have captivated audiences worldwide. His ability to effortlessly portray both emotional and action-packed roles has earned him praise from directors and fans alike.

Quick Facts

• Nick Name: The Fresh Prince
• Also Known As: Willard Carroll Smith II
• Age: 55 Years, 55 Year Old Males
• Spouse/Ex-: Jada Pinkett Smith (m. 1997), Sheree Zampino (m. 1992–1995)
• Father: Willard Christopher Smith Sr.
• Mother: Caroline Bright
• Siblings: Ellen Smith, Harry Smith, Pam Smith
• Children: Jaden Smith, Trey Smith, Willow Smith
• Born Country: United States
• Quotes By Will Smith
• Height: 6’2″ (188 cm), 6’2″ Males
• U.S. State: Pennsylvania, African-American From Pennsylvania
• Personality: ENFP
• City: Philadelphia
• Founder/Co-Founder: Treyball Development Inc., Overbrook Entertainment, New Village Leadership Academy
• Humanitarian Work: Established the ‘New Village Leadership Academy’ elementary school

Childhood & Early Life

Willard Christopher Smith, Jr. was born on September 25, 1968, in Pennsylvania. His parents were Willard C. Smith, Sr., the proprietor of a refrigeration company, and Caroline, a member of the ‘School Board of Philadelphia’. He grew up in the neighbourhood of Wynnefield with his younger siblings Harry and Ellen, as well as an older sister Pamela. Smith had a Baptist upbringing at home but received his elementary education from a Catholic institution named ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’. After his parents separated, he attended ‘Overbrook High School’ in Philadelphia. Instead of attending college, he decided to pursue a career in music.

Smith met record producer and musician Jeffrey Townes, also known as DJ Jazzy Jeff, at a party, and the two formed a group with another friend called Ready Rock C. They became known as ‘DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’ and gained popularity with songs like ‘Summertime’ and ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’. In 1988-89, Smith faced trouble with the ‘Internal Revenue Service’ due to unpaid taxes, which almost led to bankruptcy. However, he was hired for the sitcom ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ in 1990, which brought him recognition as an actor.

Smith made his debut in feature films in 1993 with the movie ‘Six Degrees of Separation’. He gained further success with movies like ‘Bad Boys’, ‘Independence Day’, ‘Men in Black’, and ‘Enemy of the State’. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role in ‘Ali’. In the following years, he starred in movies like ‘I, Robot’, ‘Hitch’, ‘Pursuit of Happyness’, and ‘I Am Legend’. More recent works include ‘Focus’, ‘Concussion’, ‘Bad Boys For Life’, ‘Aladdin’, ‘Suicide Squad’, and ‘King Richard’.

Major Works

Smith is known for his roles in the ‘Men in Black’ franchise and his performance in ‘Pursuit of Happyness’, which earned him critical acclaim and award nominations.

Personal Life & Legacy

Smith was first married to actress Sheree Elizabeth Zampino, with whom he has a son named Trey. They divorced after three years. He then married actress Jada Koren Pinkett, and they have two children together, Jaden and Willow. Smith has been involved in philanthropy, donating to various organizations and establishing an elementary school called ‘New Village Leadership Academy’ with his wife.

Smith was originally offered the role of ‘Neo’ in ‘The Matrix’ but turned it down, and the role went to Keanu Reeves.

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