Will Smith
Will Smith, born Willard Christopher Smith Jr. on September 25, 1968, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an acclaimed American actor, producer, and rapper. He first gained fame as the Fresh Prince in the hit sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," which aired from 1990 to 1996. Transitioning to film, Smith became a major box-office draw with roles in blockbuster hits such as "Independence Day," "Men in Black," and "Ali," the latter earning him an Academy Award nomination. Throughout his career, he has received multiple accolades, including Grammy Awards and Golden Globe nominations, with a notable win in 2022 for his portrayal of Richard Williams in "King Richard."
In addition to his film work, Smith has also ventured into production and co-founded Westbrook Inc. with his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith. Despite his success, Smith's career has not been without controversy, including a highly publicized incident at the 2022 Oscars, where he faced backlash for slapping comedian Chris Rock. Over the years, he has also been involved in various philanthropic efforts, including the establishment of a private elementary school. Widely regarded as one of Hollywood's most powerful actors, Smith has a significant cultural impact and remains a prominent figure in the entertainment industry.
Will Smith
Actor
- Born: September 25, 1968
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Smith is a multitalented entertainer who found success in music, film, and television in the 1990s and into the twenty-first century. One of the most bankable movie stars of his generation, he has appeared in several films that grossed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.
Early Life
Willard Christopher Smith Jr. was born on September 25, 1968, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Caroline, a school administrator, and Willard Christopher Smith Sr., a refrigeration engineer. Smith’s neighborhood was middle class and predominantly Black American. His father, who had served in the US Air Force, was extremely strict.
Smith grew up loving to read, particularly Dr. Seuss books, to which he later attributed his love of rap and hip-hop music. At sixteen, Smith formed a hip-hop act with friend Jeff Townes, who went by the stage name DJ Jazzy Jeff. Smith called himself the Fresh Prince, an adaptation of a nickname given to him at school.
After high school, Smith was admitted to a pre-engineering program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. However, he declined to apply for admission to the school, saying that he was not interested in going to college. Instead, Smith and Townes signed a record deal with Word Up Records and toured England. The duo’s album Rock the House (1987) sold six hundred thousand copies. The follow-up album, He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper (1988), went platinum and spawned the Grammy Award–winning single "Parents Just Don’t Understand."
By 1993, Smith and Townes had released three more successful albums. However, Smith squandered his ample earnings through poor money management. He married Sheree Zampino in 1992; they had a son, Willard III (known as Trey), and divorced in 1995.
Life’s Work
In 1989, Smith signed a contract with television network NBC to star in a series created by producer Benny Medina. The sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, debuted in September 1990 to strong ratings. Smith played a fictionalized version of himself, a charming, street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia sent to live with wealthy relatives in California. The show ran for six years.
Although Smith quickly became a television star, his ambition led him to seek film roles. He won critical praise for a turn as a con man in 1993's Six Degrees of Separation, then earned $2 million to star in the action comedy Bad Boys (1995). Bad Boys was a box-office hit, grossing almost $150 million worldwide. However, it was Smith’s role as a US Marine pilot in the blockbuster Independence Day (1996) that propelled him to stardom. The iconic disaster film grossed more than $800 million and made Smith a household name.
After Independence Day, Smith starred in a series of films, including Men in Black (1997), Enemy of the State (1998), and Wild Wild West (1999). Smith infamously chose to star in the latter film, an eventual critical and commercial failure, rather than in the groundbreaking blockbuster The Matrix (1999). He simultaneously revived his music career with the hit solo albums Big Willie Style (1997) and Willennium (1999).
In 1997, Smith married actor Jada Pinkett. The couple’s son, Jaden, was born in 1998, and their daughter, Willow, was born in 2000.
In 2001, Smith began to match his commercial success with critical acclaim. That year, he starred as boxing legend Muhammad Ali in the biographical film Ali. Smith earned a nomination for best actor at the 2002 Academy Awards. Throughout the decade, Smith remained a consistent box-office draw, appearing in high-profile films such as 2002's Men in Black II, 2004's I, Robot, 2006's The Pursuit of Happyness (also featuring his son Jaden, and for which he earned his second Academy Award nomination), 2007's I Am Legend, and 2008's Hancock. He also served as a producer on several of his films.
After several years without a headline role, Smith returned with Men in Black III in 2012. He then produced and starred in the science-fiction film After Earth (2013), which again saw him acting together with Jaden. However, the film was harshly received by critics. After a minor role in Winter's Tale (2014), Smith starred as a veteran fraudster opposite Margot Robbie in Focus (2015). He also signed on for the lead role in Concussion (2015), based on the story of the neuropathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in football players, and as a member of the ensemble cast in Suicide Squad (2016), a superhero film based on DC Comics villains who become antiheroes. The former was mostly well received, while the latter was a critical failure but a commercial success.
Smith next took the lead in the drama Collateral Beauty, directed by David Frankel, in 2016. The film received negative reviews from critics but performed well financially. His next film, Bright (2017), was a crime story set in a fantastical alternate present in which mythological creatures live alongside humans. Smith played a human police officer teamed with the police force's first orc officer; the mismatched duo must overcome animosity between the various races. Though the film, directed by Smith's Suicide Squad director David Ayer, had a poor critical reception, it was notable for being released through the video-streaming service Netflix and becoming one of the site's most-streamed features. It was also reportedly the most expensive Netflix film to date.
Smith went on to provide the voice of the lead character in the well-received animated film Spies in Disguise, released in 2019. He was also cast in Disney's live-action remake of Aladdin (2019) as the Genie and starred in the popular comedic action film Bad Boys for Life (2020), which he also produced. Also in 2020, with Pinkett Smith, he executive-produced Life in a Year, a romance drama featuring Jaden.
Smith next accepted the lead in Emancipation, a biopic of a self-emancipated man who joined the Union Army. He and coproducer Antoine Fuqua made headlines in 2021 when they moved its production out of Georgia in protest of the state's restrictive voting laws. Smith starred in his most critically acclaimed film in years with the movie King Richard (2021), in which he played the father of tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams. The role earned Smith a Golden Globe at the 2022 ceremony, which was untelevised due to ongoing controversy among members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award. Though Smith was also nominated for the Academy Award for best actor for the role, which he ultimately won, his achievement was overshadowed at the Oscars ceremony after he instigated an incident with one of the event's celebrity presenters that involved physical violence. Upon comedian and actor Chris Rock's delivery of a joke about Pinkett Smith's lack of hair, which she had previously attributed to the condition alopecia, Smith took to the stage and slapped Rock in the face before returning to his seat and profanely shouting at him. While many commentators noted the importance of recognizing the sensitivity of Pinkett Smith's condition, several also criticized Smith's publicly violent reaction. Following a somewhat loose apology that did not mention Rock during his award acceptance speech, he then apologized to Rock on social media before announcing that he had resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which stated that it had begun disciplinary action discussions. In April, the academy announced that Smith had been banned from attending the Oscars ceremony for the next decade.
In 2019 Smith and Pinkett Smith cofounded the diversified holding company Westbrook Inc., encompassing technology start-ups, merchandise, new media, other ventures.
Significance
In 2007 Newsweek magazine named Smith the most powerful actor on the planet. The claim was not mere hyperbole: Smith was one of the most popular actors in Hollywood and had a remarkable string of box-office hits. In 2008, Hancock became his eighth consecutive film to gross more than $100 million, and by 2021 nineteen of his films in all had reached that mark. He also became one of the few actors to command a salary of $20 million per film. By 2022 he had received three Oscar nominations, five Golden Globe nominations and one Golden Globe win, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and four Grammy Awards. Smith also founded a private elementary school called the New Village Leadership Academy, in Calabasas, California, and was noted for other charitable work and social causes.
Bibliography
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Doeden, Matt. Will Smith: Box Office Superstar. Lerner, 2010.
Cherelus, Gina. "Will Smith on 'King Richard' and His Secret Career Fear." The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/movies/will-smith-king-richard-oscars.html. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.
Iannucci, Lisa. Will Smith: A Biography. Greenwood, 2009.
Lang, Brent. "Will Smith Resigns from Academy over Chris Rock Oscars Slap Backlash." Variety, 1 Apr. 2022, variety.com/2022/film/news/will-smith-resigns-academy-oscars-slap-chris-rock-1235221041/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2022.
Rose, Steve. "Will Smith's Bright: Racial Allegory or Straight Up Racism?" The Guardian, 27 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jan/27/will-smiths-bright-racial-allegory-or-straight-up-racism. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.
Schulz, Lisa. "Will Smith Calls 'After Earth' the 'Most Painful Failure' of His Career." Variety, 12 Feb. 2015, variety.com/2015/film/news/will-smith-after-earth-comment-most-painful-failure-of-his-career-1201432773. Accessed 24 Sept. 2015.
Schuman, Michael. Will Smith: A Biography of a Rapper Turned Movie Star. Enslow, 2013.
Smith, Sean. "Will Smith: Hollywood's Most Powerful Actor?" Newsweek, 9 Apr. 2007, www.newsweek.com/will-smith-hollywoods-most-powerful-actor-97341. Accessed 24 Sept. 2015.
Sperling, Nicole. “Will Smith’s Production Pulls out of Georgia, Citing the State’s Voting Law.” The New York Times, 12 Apr. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/business/will-smith-emancipation-georgia.html. Accessed 26 July 2021.
Siegel, Tatiana. “How Will Smith Cracked the Code on Making Real Money in Hollywood.” The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Oct. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/how-will-smith-cracked-code-making-real-money-hollywood-1246035/. Accessed 26 July 2021.