биография уилл смит на английском
Will Smith Biography
Nick Name: The Fresh Prince
Also Known As: Willard Carroll Smith Jr.
Born in: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
father: Willard Christopher Smith Sr.
mother: Caroline Bright
siblings: Ellen Smith, Harry Smith, Pam Smith
Founder/Co-Founder: Treyball Development Inc., Overbrook Entertainment, New Village Leadership Academy
education: Overbrook High School
Humanitarian Work: Established the ‘New Village Leadership Academy’ elementary school
Recommended For You
Who is Will Smith?
Will Smith is an extremely popular American actor, who began his career as a rap artist, teaming up with turntabler DJ Jazzy Jeff and beat boxer Ready Rock C. He was known to be a bright student hailing from the Philadelphia’s ‘Overbrook High School’, who decided against attending college, so that he could pursue a career in music. He was successful as a singer, and is also a ‘Grammy Award’ recipient. At the age of 25, this young man ventured in movies, and debuted with the famous movie ‘Six Degree of Separation’. From then on, there was no looking back for this talented young star. Appearing in movies like ‘Independence Day’, ‘I, Robot’, ‘Enemy of the State’, and ‘Ali’, he proved his mettle to the entire world. His power packed performances showed versatility and promise that this star was here to stay. In the opinion of many directors, the actor was like a breath of fresh air and essayed emotional roles with as much ease as he would portray an action hero. Amongst his several brilliant films, ‘Men in Black’ a sci-fi comedy, was one movie that became a roaring hit with moviegoers all over the world. The popularity of the first movie inspired the sequels in the ‘Men in Black’ series, which were lauded by fans and critics alike.
Биография Уилл Смита на английском языке
Здесь вы можете прочитать биографию Уилл Смита на английском языке.
Born Willard Christopher Smith Jr on September 25th, 1968, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Smith grew up amidst the middle-classes, his father owning a refrigeration company. The second of four children (the younger Harry and Ellen are twins), Will was a bright child, constantly playing upon his natural charm, a habit which, at Overbrook High School, earned him the nickname Prince.
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. 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.
This he proved in his next feature, the sprawling, explosive Independence Day. As Marine Corps Captain Steve Hiller (a character he based on childhood hero Harrison Ford’s Han Solo), he made the very best of limited dialogue, and stole the show by punching out a grotesque, murderous alien then delivering a deadpan «Welcome to Earth». For a while, he could do no wrong. With Tommy Lee Jones as his straight-man, he scored an spectacular cross-generational hit with Men In Black, then starred in the superior conspiracy thriller Enemy Of The State. Next came his one major set-back, with the relative failure of Wild Wild West. Despite the popularity of the Smith-rapped theme tune, the public did not take to the movie’s bizarre combination of buccaneering cowboy action and gothic science fiction. Maybe if George Clooney had not pulled out of the role taken by Kevin Kline things might have been different.
Now, to the great joy of Martin Lawrence, came Bad Boys 2, like the original directed by Michael Bay. This time Smith and Lawrence (with Will now seeing Martin’s onscreen cop sister) were on the trail of a drug dealer shifting his money between Florida and Cuba. Once again they were a hugely charismatic comedic duo, but this time they were rather overshadowed by stunt overkill, the high-speed action being too sharply edited to create any real tension or excitement. Like MIB2 it went into profit but, again like MIB2, the margin was much smaller than that of the original.
Next he would lend his voice to the animated Shark Tale, playing a young fish who’s found beside the body of the son of shark mob boss. Robert De Niro. Heralded as a hard-man killer, he boasts and brags and finds himself pursued by vampish Angelina Jolie and a vengeful De Niro. It was another huge hit, as was Hitch (originally known as The Last First Kiss), a rom-com released in time for Valentine’s Day, 2005. Here Will played a professional dating consultant who counsels lonely guys seeking dates in New York City. Setting pudgy accountant Kevin James up with wealthy power-babe Amber Valetta, he then discovers that his methods don’t work for their inventor as he struggles to impose himself on gossip columnist Eva Mendes. Interestingly, Hitch would also see Smith enter the Guiness Book Of Records when he appeared at three premieres in 12 hours, at Manchester, Birmingham and London.
Will Smith has been twice married: first to Sheree Zampino (1992-95), who he met in 1991 at a taping of A Different World, and with whom he had one child, Willard Smith III. Then there was actress Jada Pinkett (1997-now) with whom he has a son, Jaden Christopher Syre, and a daughter, Willow Camille Reign. He actually met Pinkett many years before they married, when she tried out for the part of his girlfriend in Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (the part going, as mentioned, to Nia Long). Come 2003, he and Jada would create and write a TV show, All Of Us, based on their own lives. Both would make occasional guest appearances.
But he’d already been there and done that. Having conquered the worlds of music and film, you’d think Will Smith would have no ambitions left, that there was no mountain left to climb. But, being Will Smith, he says the biggest is yet to come. In ten years or so, he plans to run for President. He said it, then he denied it. It just has to be true. Only a crazy man would bet against him.
Will Smith
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
Will Smith, byname of Willard Carroll Smith, Jr., (born September 25, 1968, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.), American actor and musician whose charisma, clean-cut good looks, and quick wit helped him transition from rap music to a successful career in acting.
Smith was given the nickname “Prince Charming” in high school, which he adapted to “Fresh Prince” in order to reflect a more hip-hop sound when he began his musical career. He formed an alliance with schoolmate and deejay Jeffrey Townes, whom he met in 1981. They began recording as DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince and released their first single, “Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble,” in 1986, later followed by the album Rock the House. In 1988 the group released the groundbreaking single “ Parents Just Don’t Understand,” which went on to win a Grammy Award (the first Grammy ever presented in the rap performance category).
Smith’s act, notable for its wide crossover appeal, was sometimes characterized as “light rap” because of the lack of hard-core lyrics and themes in his compositions. Platinum-certified recordings and accompanying videos subsequently brought him to the attention of television producers. The television sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which began in 1990, was loosely based on Smith’s real-life persona. It ran on NBC for six successful seasons, ending at the star’s request, and during its run Smith garnered two Golden Globe Award nominations and served as an executive producer for the final season.
After starring in the dramatic thriller Enemy of the State (1998), Smith continued to demonstrate his remarkable versatility as an actor, playing an enigmatic golf caddy in The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000); the boxer Muhammad Ali in the biopic Ali (2001), for which he received an Academy Award nomination; a cop from the near future in I, Robot (2004); and a “date doctor” helping a romantically inept man find love in Hitch (2005). The next year he starred in The Pursuit of Happyness, and his performance as a single father who overcomes adversity earned him a second Oscar nomination for best actor. In I Am Legend (2007), Smith appeared as a scientist who is perhaps the last human on Earth following an epidemic. Hancock (2008) featured Smith as a superhero trying to revamp his unpopular image, and in Seven Pounds (2008) he played a man seeking redemption after accidentally killing seven people in a car accident.
Smith later starred—alongside his son Jaden—in the science-fiction epic After Earth (2013), which was based on an idea he conceived. In 2015 Smith portrayed a con artist in the thriller Focus and the doctor who discovered the epidemic of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among NFL players in Concussion. In 2016 he played the assassin Deadshot in the action thriller Suicide Squad and a grieving father in Collateral Beauty. The following year he starred as a police officer in the Netflix action film Bright, which is set in a Los Angeles inhabited by humans and mythical creatures. Smith then was cast as the genie in the family comedy Aladdin (2019). He played two roles in Gemini Man (2019): a retired assassin and his younger clone, the latter a digitally recreated version of Smith in his 20s. Smith’s other credits from 2019 included the animated Spies in Disguise, in which he supplied the voice of a spy who is turned into a pigeon. He then starred in Bad Boys for Life (2020), a sequel to his 1995 breakthrough film.
Smith continued his recording career with the albums Born to Reign (2002) and Lost and Found (2005), but they failed to match the success of his previous releases. In addition, in the early 21st century Smith served as a producer for several films, including some in which he acted, and with his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith (married 1997), he helped create and produce the sitcom All of Us (2003–07). In 2018 he hosted the documentary TV series One Strange Rock, about Earth. Smith’s memoir, Will (written with Mark Manson), was released in 2021.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.
Will Smith
Who Is Will Smith?
After Will Smith met Jeff Townes at age 16, the duo launched a highly successful rap career as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Smith starred on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for six seasons, before establishing himself as a Hollywood A-lister with Bad Boys (1995) and Independence Day (1996). He has since headlined such popular films as Men in Black (1997) and Hitch (2005) and earned Oscar nominations for Ali (2001) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). Smith also earned acclaim for Concussion (2015), before returning to action fare with Suicide Squad (2016).
Early Life
Smith was born Willard Carroll Smith Jr. on September 25, 1968, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to mother Caroline, a school board employee, and father Willard C. Smith, a refrigeration company owner. His middle-class upbringing saw him attend the strict Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School, despite his family’s observation of the Baptist faith. He went on to attend Overbrook High School.
His West Philadelphia neighborhood was a melting pot of cultures where Orthodox Jews co-existed with a large Muslim population. Smith was a good student whose charming personality and quick tongue were renowned for getting him out of trouble, a trait for which he soon gained the nickname «Prince.»
Smith began rapping at age 12, emulating heroes like Grandmaster Flash but tingeing his rhymes with a comedic element that would later become his trademark. At 16 Smith met future collaborator Jeff Townes at a party. The pair became friends, and the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince was born.
Music Career
As teens, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince began producing music but steered clear of the gangsta rap sound that was emerging from the West Coast by groups like N.W.A. The Fresh Prince rapped about teenage preoccupations in a clean, curse-free style that middle America found safe and entertaining. The pair’s first single, «Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble,» was a hit in 1986. Their 1987 debut album, Rock the House, hit the Billboard Top 200, and made Smith a millionaire before the age of 18. The early success put any thoughts of attending college out of Smith’s mind.
Early on, it was reported that Smith had turned down a scholarship to Boston’s elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but Smith later dispelled the rumor when he told an interviewer: «My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed Black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college.»
In 1988, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince continued their success with the album He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper. Featuring the radio-friendly singles «Parents Just Don’t Understand,» «Brand New Funk,» and «Nightmare on My Street,» the album won the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance. It was followed in 1989 by And In This Corner. which continued the pair’s rise to stardom.
Movies and TV Shows
‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’
Two years later, Smith began his crossover into acting. Drawing on his experiences with fledgling stardom, NBC signed Smith to headline a sitcom about a street-smart kid from Philadelphia who moves in with stuffy relatives in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air. Playing on his rapper persona, and at times featuring his friend Towne, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a huge success that ran for six seasons.
Meanwhile, Smith and Towne continued producing music, their 1991 album Homebase producing the hits «Summertime» and «Ring My Bell.» Their final album together, 1993’s Code Red, was notable for «Boom! Shake the Room.»
‘Where the Day Takes You’ and ‘Six Degrees of Separation’
While still making The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Smith began a second crossover into movies. Small roles in the drama Where The Day Takes You (1992) and the comedy Made In America (1993) were followed by a critically acclaimed lead in Six Degrees of Separation (1993). Holding his own alongside Donald Sutherland, Stockard Channing and Ian McKellen, Smith played a street-wise gay hustler who cons his way through elite circles.
‘Bad Boys’
Smith’s first steps into superstardom came with his next film, Bad Boys (1995). The high-budget cop movie saw him team up with comic Martin Lawrence, breaking away from the Black-cop-white-cop formula that had been so successful for Beverly Hills Cop and the Lethal Weapon series. The two Black leads proved an instant success and Smith — playing the smooth lady killer to Lawrence’s clown — was established as leading man material.
‘Independence Day’
Smith next took on the epic sci-fi flick Independence Day (1996), a role that confirmed him as a major player in Hollywood and the go-to guy for summer blockbusters. He played a pilot leading the counterattack against invading alien forces, and his comedic talents effortlessly transformed into the pithy one-liners all action heroes need to be able to drop while dispatching their enemies.
‘Men in Black’ and ‘Enemy of the State’
Smith fought aliens again in his next blockbuster, the comic sci-fi action film, Men in Black (1997). Playing opposite Tommy Lee Jones, Smith chewed up the screen as the new recruit to Jones’ old hand. Smith rapped the theme song, and its inclusion on his 1997 solo album, Big Willie Style, brought the multi-talented actor more success. Another blockbuster followed with the slick conspiracy thriller Enemy of the State (1998), which earned Smith an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture.
Biography
Overview (4)
| Born | September 25, 1968 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Birth Name | Willard Carroll Smith Jr. |
| Nicknames | Fresh Prince Mr. July Will |
| Height | 6′ 2″ (1,88 m) |
Mini Bio (1)
Willard Carroll «Will» Smith, Jr. (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, producer, rapper, and songwriter. He has enjoyed success in television, film, and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him «the most powerful actor in Hollywood». Smith has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards.
Smith was born in West Philadelphia, the son of Caroline (Bright), a Philadelphia school board administrator, and Willard Carroll Smith, Sr., a refrigeration engineer. He grew up in West Philadelphia’s Wynnefield neighborhood, and was raised Baptist. He has three siblings, sister Pamela, who is four years older, and twins Harry and Ellen, who are three years younger. Smith attended Our Lady of Lourdes, a private Catholic elementary school in Philadelphia. His parents separated when he was 13, but did not actually divorce until around 2000.
Smith attended Overbrook High School. Though widely reported, it is untrue that Smith turned down a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); he never applied to college because he «wanted to rap.» Smith says he was admitted to a «pre-engineering [summer] program» at MIT for high school students, but he did not attend. According to Smith, «My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college.»
Smith started as the MC of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, with his childhood friend Jeffrey «DJ Jazzy Jeff» Townes as producer, as well as Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes) as the human beat box. The trio was known for performing humorous, radio-friendly songs, most notably «Parents Just Don’t Understand» and «Summertime». They gained critical acclaim and won the first Grammy awarded in the Rap category (1988).
The show was successful and began his acting career. Smith set for himself the goal of becoming «the biggest movie star in the world», studying box office successes’ common characteristics.
Smith’s first major roles were in the drama Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and the action film Bad Boys (1995) in which he starred opposite Martin Lawrence.
In 1996, Smith starred as part of an ensemble cast in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day. 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. He later struck gold again in the summer of 1997 alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the summer hit Men in Black playing Agent J. In 1998, Smith starred with Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State.
He turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix in favor of Wild Wild West (1999). Despite the disappointment of Wild Wild West, Smith has said that he harbors no regrets about his decision, asserting that Keanu Reeves’s performance as Neo was superior to what Smith himself would have achieved, although in interviews subsequent to the release of Wild Wild West he stated that he «made a mistake on Wild Wild West. That could have been better.»
In 2005, Smith was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for attending three premieres in a 24-hour time span.
He has planned to star in a feature film remake of the television series It Takes a Thief.
On December 10, 2007, Smith was honored at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Smith left an imprint of his hands and feet outside the world-renowned theater in front of many fans. Later that month, Smith starred in the film I Am Legend, released December 14, 2007. Despite marginally positive reviews, its opening was the largest ever for a film released in the United States during December. Smith himself has said that he considers the film to be «aggressively unique». A reviewer said that the film’s commercial success «cemented [Smith’s] standing as the number one box office draw in Hollywood.» On December 1, 2008, TV Guide reported that Smith was selected as one of America’s top ten most fascinating people of 2008 for a Barbara Walters ABC special that aired on December 4, 2008.
In 2008 Smith was reported to be developing a film entitled The Last Pharaoh, in which he would be starring as Taharqa. It was in 2008 that Smith starred in the superhero movie Hancock.
Men in Black III opened on May 25, 2012 with Smith again reprising his role as Agent J. This was his first major starring role in four years.
On August 19, 2011, it was announced that Smith had returned to the studio with producer La Mar Edwards to work on his fifth studio album. Edwards has worked with artists such as T.I., Chris Brown, and Game. Smith’s most recent studio album, Lost and Found, was released in 2005.
Smith and his son Jaden played father and son in two productions: the 2006 biographical drama The Pursuit of Happyness, and the science fiction film After Earth, which was released on May 31, 2013.
Smith starred opposite Margot Robbie in the romance drama Focus. He played Nicky Spurgeon, a veteran con artist who takes a young, attractive woman under his wing. Focus was released on February 27, 2015. Smith was set to star in the Sci-Fic thriller Brilliance, an adaptation of Marcus Sakey’s novel of the same name scripted by Jurassic Park writer David Koepp. But he left the project.
As of November 2015, Smith is set to star in the independent drama Collateral Beauty, which will be directed by David Frankel. Smith will play a New York advertising executive who succumbs to an deep depression after a personal tragedy.
Nobel Peace Prize Concert December 11, 2009, in Oslo, Norway: Smith with wife Jada and children Jaden and Willow Smith married Sheree Zampino in 1992. They had one son, Trey Smith, born on November 11, 1992, and divorced in 1995. Trey appeared in his father’s music video for the 1998 single «Just the Two of Us». He also acted in two episodes of the sitcom All of Us, and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on the David Blaine: Real or Magic TV special.
Smith married actress Jada Koren Pinkett in 1997. Together they have two children: Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (born 1998), his co-star in The Pursuit of Happyness and After Earth, and Willow Camille Reign Smith (born 2000), who appeared as his daughter in I Am Legend. Smith and his brother Harry own Treyball Development Inc., a Beverly Hills-based company named after Trey. Smith and his family reside in Los Angeles, California.
Smith was consistently listed in Fortune Magazine’s «Richest 40» list of the forty wealthiest Americans under the age of 40.