Will Smith Biography And Filmography:

Given his accomplishments in many areas of the entertainment business, the brilliant Will Smith qualifies as a creative "Renaissance man." Although Smith originally gained fame as the rap star Fresh Prince before the age of 20, with regular MTV television airplay and smash hit record sales, he started as an A-list Hollywood actor on the small and big screens in succeeding years, demonstrating his own commercial capability and sturdy call to a broad cross section of viewers.

A Philadelphia local, Will Smith entered the world 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, Smith started rapping from the age of 12, and earned the nickname "Prince" thanks to his capacity to effortlessly talk his way out of difficulty. 

Smith made this moniker a household phrase when he officially formed the twosome DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, with fellow musician Jeff Townes in 1986. That team grabbed two Grammy Awards, one for the influential 1988 youth song "Parents Just Don't Understand" and one for the 1991 single "Summertime", and scored financially with a series of albums up to their breakup in 1993 that did much to expand the age range of rap listeners. However, by the time he was 21, Will Smith had wasted much of his money, and had fallen into trouble with the IRS. 

Help arrived in the form of Warner Bros. executive Benny Medina, who wanted to create a family-friendly television comedy based on his own experience as a needy kid living with a wealthy Beverly Hills family, starring the good-natured Will Smith. The "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" debuted on television on September 10, 1990, and quickly became a smash hit, running six seasons. The show gave to Smith, who had turned down an MIT scholarship to chase his career, even greater audience exposure as the show's central character, introducing him to millions of viewers who fell outside of the rap universe.

During Prince's long-lasting run, Smith began to branch out into film work, accepting roles in "Where the Day Takes You" (1992) featuring Lara Flynn Boyle, and "Made in America" (1993). Will drew lots of praise on the art house circuit, as a young gay con man faking a character as Sidney Poitier's young son, in "Six Degrees of Separation" (1993), directed by Fred Schepisi and adapted by John Guare from his own play. 

In 1995, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence signed on with famous producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to co-star in the action-comedy "Bad Boys" (1995) with Tea Leoni, in which the two play a pair of Miami cops; it ultimately earned over 145 million dollars worldwide. The following year, Smith blew away his "Bad Boys" success with a role in the sci-fi smash hit "Independence Day" (1996), the story of an alien assault. Co-written, executive-produced, and directed by Roland Emmerich for 20th Century Fox, this film pulled in over $800 million dollars globally, making it not only the top movie of 1996, but one of the most financially rewarding motion pictures in history. Will then held the same dramatic ground, though in a completely different variety, as a government appointed alien hunter partnered up with Tommy Lee Jones in Barry Sonnenfeld's screwball comedy "Men in Black" (1997), another runaway success.


Will Smith gained even more success on a private front as well, as he married actress Jada Pinkett on New Year's Eve 1998. The following autumn, Smith returned to cinemas with "Enemy of the State" (1998), a conspiracy adventure movie with Gene Hackman that had Smith on the run from government agents. The following summer, Will starred opposite Kevin Kline in "Wild Wild West" (1999) featuring Salma Hayek and Bai Ling, Sonnenfeld's follow-up to "Men in Black", a strained and comical cinematic interpretation of the late-'60s television hit.

The end of 2000 found Will Smith back in cinemas, playing a mystifying golf caddy who tutors unlucky putter Matt Damon in "The Legend of Bagger Vance" (2000). Smith then trained carefully for his most challenging role - that of renowned boxer Muhammad Ali in director Michael Mann's biopic "Ali" (2001). The film worked hard to find an audience, and critics were undecided, even if Smith's performance earned accolades as well as his first Oscar nomination. 

While Smith executive produced the Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy comedy "Showtime" (2002), he doubled up with work in front of the camera, on the sci-fi comedy continuation "Men in Black II", also lead by Barry Sonnenfeld. As expected, the film made a huge amount amount of money; Will followed that film up with yet another sequel, the Bruckheimer produced "Bad Boys II". It flew to the top of the charts, as expected. The next year saw Smith in "I, Robot", a futuristic fantasy, and the CGI animated "Shark Tale", in which he voiced Oscar, a little fish with a big way of thinking, who cleans whales for a living. "Shark Tale" was a hit, and was helped by other famous voices belonging to Robert De Niro, Jack Black, Renee Zellweger and Angelina Jolie. 

While Smith had demonstrated himself as an action star and sexy celebrity time and again, and received outstanding reviews for his dramatic work, it remained to be seen if he could carry a romantic comedy as the lead. All guesswork ceased in early 2005 with the release of "Hitch" (2005) starring Eva Mendes and Smith as a legendary "date doctor," the film had the biggest opening weekend for a romantic comedy to date, leading many to doubt if there was anything Smith could not do.

The following year, Will Smith starred in the period film "The Pursuit of Happyness". Set in early-'80s San Francisco, and directed by Gabriele Muccino, the film tells the true story of Charles Gardner (Will Smith), a single dad under pressure, in an unpaid position as an intern at Dean Witter, all in an effort to be able provide for his son. With the release of "The Pursuit of Happyness", Smith had been given his first cinematic breakthrough role earning him a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. 

Next, Will Smith ventured into more sci-fi thriller and horror in "I Am Legend" (2007), the third screen manifestation of sci-fi giant Richard Matheson's book of the same title about what happens years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, and the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure.  Returning to action comedy, Will took the leading role in "Hancock" (2008) about a hard-living superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public and enters into a questionable relationship with the wife of the public relations professional who's trying to repair his image. Smith was then hired and cast in the dramatic "Seven Pounds" (2008), the emotional story of a man who will change the lives of seven strangers. 

Wrapping up the year, Smith took a role in the dramatic film "The Trial of the Chicago 7" (2008), set during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago where there were massive demonstrations against the Vietnam War. When a curfew is finally instated, it leads to even further protests, eventually leading to a police riot. Following this, eight of the demonstrators (Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Lee Weiner, and David Dellinger) were tried for conspiracy. This is the story of the trial that followed.
 

In January 2008, Smith was seen handing out cards relating to the Church of Scientology, raising speculation that his friendship with actor Tom Cruise had persuaded him to venture into the realm of Scientology. If true, Smith would be among the growing number of Hollywood celebrities that embrace the ideas of L. Ron Hubbard and his not-so-well understood creation - The Church of Scientology.