Will Smith

Before the box-office records and awards, Willard Carroll Smith II was a Philadelphia kid learning how words could move a room. Born on September 25, 1968, he grew up in West Philadelphia’s Wynnefield neighborhood, the son of Caroline, a school board administrator, and Willard Carroll Smith Sr., a U.S. Air Force veteran and refrigeration engineer. Raised Baptist, educated at Our Lady of Lourdes and Overbrook High School, Smith began rapping at 12. When his grandmother found a notebook full of curse words, she left him a note urging him to show the world he was as smart as his family believed. Smith later said that moment influenced his choice to keep profanity out of his music.

That clean, quick-witted style became part of his identity as the MC of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, the hip hop duo he formed with childhood friend Jeffrey “DJ Jazzy Jeff” Townes. Their chemistry began by chance in 1985, when Smith filled in at a house party after Townes’s hype man failed to appear. From there came a run of albums and hit singles, including “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” “A Nightmare on My Street,” “Summertime,” “Ring My Bell,” and “Boom! Shake the Room.” The duo won the first Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1989 for “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” and “Summertime” later brought them a second Grammy.

Success arrived early, but so did pressure. Around 1988 and 1989, Smith spent freely and underpaid his income taxes, leading the Internal Revenue Service to assess a $2.8 million tax debt, take possessions, and garnish his income. By 1990, he was struggling financially when NBC signed him to a contract and built The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air around a fictionalized version of him. The sitcom ran from 1990 to 1996 and earned him Golden Globe nominations in 1993 and 1994. It also opened the door to acting, and Smith set himself the bold goal of becoming “the biggest movie star in the world,” studying what made box-office hits work.

The plan worked with unusual force. Smith moved from early film roles in Six Degrees of Separation and Bad Boys to worldwide fame in Independence Day and Men in Black, where he played Agent J opposite Tommy Lee Jones. He became one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, with films grossing more than $10 billion worldwide. His work stretched across action, comedy, animation, drama, and science fiction, including Enemy of the State, I, Robot, Shark Tale, Hitch, I Am Legend, Hancock, Seven Pounds, Suicide Squad, and Aladdin. As a solo musician, he released albums including Big Willie Style and Willennium, with “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It” and “Wild Wild West” reaching number one in the U.S.

Smith’s dramatic ambitions brought major recognition as well. He received Academy Award nominations for playing Muhammad Ali in Ali and Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness, then won the Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying Richard Williams in King Richard. That same 2022 ceremony also brought heavy criticism after he slapped and shouted at presenter Chris Rock following an unscripted joke about Jada Pinkett Smith. Smith resigned from the Academy and was banned from attending its events for ten years. His public life has held triumph, strain, discipline, and correction, which may be why a line like “Don’t let success go to your head; don’t let failure go to your heart” fits the shape of his story so closely.