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will smith
Will Smith, although he initially became famous as a rapper, Will
Smith went on to prove his acting talents in both television and
films, eventually winning a reputation as an entertainer who could
easily cross back and forth between musician and actor. In the
process, he became one of the most successful entertainers--African-American
or otherwise--in the American popular consciousness of the 1990s.
A native of Philadelphia, Smith was born on September 25, 1968.
The son of middle-class parents (his father owned a refrigeration
company and his mother worked for the school board) and the second
of four children, he earned the nickname "Prince" thanks
to his ability to talk himself out of trouble. The nickname became
part of his popular persona when, with fellow rapper Jeff Townes,
Smith (who had been rapping since the age of twelve) formed the
duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Smith found fame as a
rapper, producing two platinum albums and winning a Grammy for
He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper.
However, by the time he was eighteen, Smith had squandered much
of his fortune and was in debt to the IRS. Help came in the form
of Warner Bros. executive Benny Medina, who wanted to create a
TV show based on his own experiences as a poor kid living with
a rich Beverly Hills family. The result was The Fresh Prince of
Bel Air, a popular sitcom that gave Smith--who had turned down
an MIT scholarship to pursue his career--even greater fame as
the show's protagonist. During the show's six-year run, Smith
began to branch out towards film work. Following roles in Where
the Day Takes You (1992) and Made in America (1993), he scored
critical approval as a young, gay con man pretending to be Sidney
Poitier's son in Six Degrees of Separation (1993). He also scored
a decent helping of controversy, thanks to remarks he made in
an interview that were perceived as homophobic. Two years later,
Smith found his first major commercial success alongside Martin
Lawrence in the action flick Bad Boys. The following year, he
topped that with a turn in the sci-fi smash Independence Day,
which was one of the year's biggest moneymakers.
Extraterrestrial lifeforms proved to be a profitable subject
for Smith, as he went on to make a similarly gargantuan amount
of money playing a secret agent tracking down aliens with Tommy
Lee Jones in Men in Black (1997). The film turned out to be a
lucrative enterprise for him off the screen as well, as his theme-song
single also became a hit. Its success inspired him to begin rapping
again, and that same year he released Big Willie Style. 1997 also
brought Smith success on a more personal front, as he married
actress Jada Pinkett on New Year's Eve. In 1998, the actor starred
in Enemy of the State, a conspiracy thriller also starring Gene
Hackman that had him on the run from government agents. The film
was a commercial success, and the next year Smith starred in Wild
Wild West. As the film's eponymous 19th-century lawman hero, Smith
was part of a project that was widely dismissed by critics and
failed to make back its high costs. However, his theme-song single
provided another hit for the actor and musician.
Filmography
The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)
Wild Wild West (1999)
Enemy of the State (1998)
Men in Black (1997)
Independence Day (1996)
Bad Boys (1995)
Made in America (1993)
Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
Where the Day Takes You (1992)
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