British postcard by Star-Images. London, no. M.012. Photo: Columbia Pictures Industries Inc., 1997. Will Smith in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997).
British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD., London, no SPC 3390. Will Smith in Wild Wild West (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1999).
Portuguese freecard by Postalfree. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Will Smith in I, Robot (Alex Proyas, 2004). Caption: Only a man was waiting for them.
The Fresh Prince
Willard Carroll 'Will' Smith Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1968. He was the son of Caroline (Bright), a Philadelphia school board administrator, and Willard Carroll Smith, Sr., a refrigeration engineer. Smith attended Our Lady of Lourdes, a private Catholic elementary school in Philadelphia and later Overbrook High School. His parents separated when he was 13, but did not actually divorce until around 2000. At school, he was nicknamed "Prince", as he always managed to get out of awkward situations well. In doing so, he spent a lot of time on the playground playing basketball. He loved music and played a lot of hip-hop.
In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. Together with Jeffrey Townes (DJ Jazzy Jeff) and Clarence Holmes (Ready Rock C) as the human beatbox, Smith formed DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince with Will as the MC. They scored a number of hits with their humorous, radio-friendly songs such as 'Parents Just Don't Understand', 'Girls ain't Nothing but Trouble' and 'I Think I can beat Mike Tyson'. Their album 'He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper' (1988) became a success in the United States. They received the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance, for the song 'Parents Just Don't Understand' in 1989.
In 1990, Smith's popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for six seasons (1990-1996). Quincy Jones was the producer of the show. Smith played a homeboy from Philly (Philadelphia) who moves in with his fancy aunt and uncle. Bel-Air was chosen as the location, as Quincy Jones' children had grown up there. The series became a huge success. Through this acting experience, Smith was asked for Hollywood productions, where he soon became one of the best-known actors. During The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith set for himself the goal of becoming "the biggest movie star in the world", studying box office successes' common characteristics.
His first major role was in the drama Six Degrees of Separation (Fred Schepisi, 1993). Then followed the buddy film Bad Boys (Michael Bay, 1995) with Martin Lawrence. The action film was made for a budget of $23 million but brought in over $160 million, making it one of the most successful films of that year. Then he starred as part of an ensemble cast in the Sci-Fi film Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996). The film was a massive blockbuster, becoming the second highest-grossing film in history at the time and establishing Smith as a prime box office draw.
Another huge success was the Science Fiction comedy Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997) with Tommy Lee Jones. The Summer hit received critical acclaim for its screenplay, action sequences, and the performances and chemistry of Jones and Smith as Agent J. The film grossed over $589 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 1997. Smith's film career continued with the crime film Enemy of the State (Tony Scott, 1998), which exposed the power of security services, and the less successful Western Wild Wild West (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1999) with Kevin Kline. The film's screenplay was based on the television series The Wild Wild West (1965-1969). The film was slammed by critics but nevertheless brought in over $220 million. In music, Smith broke through solo in 1997 with the hit 'Men in Black' from the film of the same name and later 'Gettin' Jiggy wit it'. Smith's last album 'Lost and Found' (2005) included the hit single 'Switch'.
British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD, London, no. SPC 3148.
British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD., London, no SPC 3155.
British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD, London, no. SPC 3172.
A real challenge
After some smaller roles, Will Smith faced a real challenge. He was asked to play Muhammad Ali in the biopic Ali (Michael Mann, 2001). The actor grew an extra 15 kilos of muscle for his role and the film was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Lead Actor (Smith) and for Best Supporting Actor (Jon Voight). Later in 2001, Smith returned with the slightly less successful sequel to Men in Black, Men in Black II (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2002) again opposite Tommy Lee Jones. Bad Boys was also followed by a sequel, Bad Boys II (Michael Bay, 2003).
The Science Fiction film I, Robot (Alex Proyas, 2004), based on the stories by Isaac Asimov, was a huge box-office success. Later that year, Smith also performed the voice of Oscar in the animated film Shark Tale (Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, Rob Letterman, 2004). Hitch (Andy Tennant, 2005) was a true comedy that drew a lot of people to the cinema. In 2006, Smith came out with The Pursuit of Happyness (Gabriele Muccino, 2006), a film that also featured his infant son Jaden. For this film, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
In 2007, Smith returned to the blockbuster cinema in the post-apocalyptic Horror, Science Fiction and action film I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007) which was very successful in cinemas. In it, he plays the survivor of a virus that struck humanity. I Am Legend is an adaptation of the 1954 book by Richard Matheson. The following year, Smith played a lapsed and almost constantly drunk superhero in the film Hancock (Peter Berg, 2008) with Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron, which was well-received as a comedy. Will Smith starred with Tommy Lee Jones again in the successful third part of MIB, Men in Black III (Barry Sonnfeld, 2012). It was his first major starring role in four years and was followed by the ambitious but more or less flopped Sci-Fi film After Earth (M. Night Shyamalan, 2013) in which his son Jaden also starred.
In 2015, the star actor first played the role of a gentleman con man in the ingenious crime film Focus (Glenn Ficarra, John Requa, 2015) with Margot Robbie. Later that year, the biographical sports drama Concussion (Peter Landsman, 2015) was released. The film tells the true story of Dr. Bennet Omalu (Smith), a forensic neuropathologist who was the first to detect a neurodegenerative disease in former NFL players. Then the actor starred in the fantasy film Bright (David Ayer, 2017), released by Netflix, so not seen in cinemas. Smith portrayed the role of Ghost Genie in Aladdin (Guy Ritchie, 2019), the live-action remake of the 1992 Disney animated film of the same name. He returned as Mike Lowrey in the third part of the Bad Boys series, Bad Boys For Life (Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, 2020).
In 2022, Smith won an Oscar for Best Actor for his lead role in the film King Richard (Reinaldo Marcus Green, 2021), about the father of sisters and tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams. At the Oscar ceremony, presenter and comedian Chris Rock was flat-handed by Smith on stage after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith. A day later, he publicly apologised to Rock. Two weeks later, the Oscars organisers decided to bar Smith from the Oscars ceremony for ten years. Will Smith married twice. In 1992, he married Sheree Zampino, and together they had one son, Willard Christopher Smith III (1992), aka Trey. He later starred in the music video for 'Just the Two of Us'. Smith divorced Zampino in 1997, after which he married Jada Pinkett in the same year. They have two children together: Jaden Christopher Syre (1998), known for his performances in The Pursuit of Happyness (Gabriele Muccino, 2006), The Karate Kid (Harald Zwart, 2010) and After Earth (M. Night Shyamalan, 2013), and Willow Camille Reign (2000), known for her performance in I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007).
British postcard by Star Images, London, no. M.002. Photo: Columbia Pictures, 1997. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997). Caption: Mr. Jones, Mr. Smith, protecting the Earth from the scum of the universe.
British postcard by Star Images, London, no. M.003. Photo: Columbia Pictures, 1997. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997). Caption: Protecting the Earth from the scum of the universe.
British postcard by Star-Images, London, no. M.011. Photo: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. Will Smith in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997).
British postcard by Star-Images, London, no. M.014. Photo: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. Will Smith in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997).
Dutch postcard by Boomerang. Photo: Amblin Entertainment / Columbia Pictures. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black II (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2002). Caption: Back in black.
Sources: Akram Braham (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.
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