Personal details
Name: Will SmithBorn: 25 September 1968 (Age: 42)
Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Height: 6' 2"
Awards: 2 Oscar nominations, 4 Golden Globe nominations
All about this star
Despite his parents' wishes, he didn't want to go to college anyway - the music was now his thing and, come college time, he'd already made a huge success of it.
. The pair's music was quirky, cheery and squeaky clean, a far cry from the new Gangsta Rap that was beginning to rear its bloodied head, and mainstream success was near-immediate. Their first single, Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble (sampling the theme to I Dream Of Jeannie) was a hit in 1986, boosting the sales of their debut album Rock The House and making Will a millionaire at the age of 18. He wouldn't stay rich for long, though. Forgetting to pay his tax he was cleaned out by the IRS and forced to build his fortune again. Fortunately, more hits followed, including the album He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper, the first hip-hop LP to go double-platinum. In 1989, they won the first ever Grammy for Best Rap Performance for the track Parents Just Don't Understand, and received the three millionth call to their own 900 number (the US equivalent of 0898), the first ever set up by pop stars. A further Grammy was won in 1991, for the track Summertime, and the hits kept coming till Code Red, their final album together, in 1993. This, of course, was not the end of Will's rapping career. He would re-emerge in 1997 with a debut solo LP, Big Willie Style, which spawned the enormo-hit Gettin' Jiggy Wit It, and would strike again with 1999's mighty Willennium.
But by this time Will was already at the top of another profession. Back in the late Eighties, he'd met one Benny Medina, who had an idea for a sitcom concerning his experiences in Beverly Hills. NBC took up the option and, casting Will as a sassy, street-smart kid coping comically with life in Los Angeles' richest area, produced a series titled The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. The show, a major success, ran for six years, and gave Will a foot-hold in Hollywood, with movie offers soon coming thick and fast.
First came the bleak and melodramatic Where The Day Takes You, about young runaways in Hollywood, with Will way down a cast including Dermot Mulroney, Lara Flynn Boyle and Kyle MacLachlan. Then came a bigger role in Made In America, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson, where Will performed a superb comic turn as Teacake, best friend to Goldberg's onscreen daughter Nia Long (also Will's girlfriend in Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air). Critics were mightily impressed by his first dramatic lead, as a manipulative imposter in John Guare's Oscar-nominated Six Degrees Of Separation, then the public came on board with Bad Boys. One of the first modern, high-budget action thrillers to feature two black leads, this paired Will with fellow comic Martin Lawrence and took the box-office by storm. Will was now big business.
. The pair's music was quirky, cheery and squeaky clean, a far cry from the new Gangsta Rap that was beginning to rear its bloodied head, and mainstream success was near-immediate. Their first single, Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble (sampling the theme to I Dream Of Jeannie) was a hit in 1986, boosting the sales of their debut album Rock The House and making Will a millionaire at the age of 18. He wouldn't stay rich for long, though. Forgetting to pay his tax he was cleaned out by the IRS and forced to build his fortune again. Fortunately, more hits followed, including the album He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper, the first hip-hop LP to go double-platinum. In 1989, they won the first ever Grammy for Best Rap Performance for the track Parents Just Don't Understand, and received the three millionth call to their own 900 number (the US equivalent of 0898), the first ever set up by pop stars. A further Grammy was won in 1991, for the track Summertime, and the hits kept coming till Code Red, their final album together, in 1993. This, of course, was not the end of Will's rapping career. He would re-emerge in 1997 with a debut solo LP, Big Willie Style, which spawned the enormo-hit Gettin' Jiggy Wit It, and would strike again with 1999's mighty Willennium.
But by this time Will was already at the top of another profession. Back in the late Eighties, he'd met one Benny Medina, who had an idea for a sitcom concerning his experiences in Beverly Hills. NBC took up the option and, casting Will as a sassy, street-smart kid coping comically with life in Los Angeles' richest area, produced a series titled The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. The show, a major success, ran for six years, and gave Will a foot-hold in Hollywood, with movie offers soon coming thick and fast.
First came the bleak and melodramatic Where The Day Takes You, about young runaways in Hollywood, with Will way down a cast including Dermot Mulroney, Lara Flynn Boyle and Kyle MacLachlan. Then came a bigger role in Made In America, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson, where Will performed a superb comic turn as Teacake, best friend to Goldberg's onscreen daughter Nia Long (also Will's girlfriend in Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air). Critics were mightily impressed by his first dramatic lead, as a manipulative imposter in John Guare's Oscar-nominated Six Degrees Of Separation, then the public came on board with Bad Boys. One of the first modern, high-budget action thrillers to feature two black leads, this paired Will with fellow comic Martin Lawrence and took the box-office by storm. Will was now big business.
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