1968
Will Smith is born
The Philadelphia rapper who became the Fresh Prince, and later an Oscar-winning film star with more than $10 billion in box office, is born.
Willard Carroll Smith II was born in Philadelphia on September 25, 1968. His mother, Caroline, was a school board administrator, and his father, Willard Carroll Smith Sr., was a U.S. Air Force veteran and refrigeration engineer. He grew up in the Wynnefield neighborhood of West Philadelphia and attended Overbrook High School.
Smith started rapping at 12. When his grandmother found a notebook of his lyrics full of curse words, she wrote him a note asking him to show the world how smart he was without them. He later said that note shaped his choice to keep profanity out of his music. In 1985 he met Jeffrey Townes by chance at a house party a few doors from his home, where Townes, a DJ, needed someone to fill in for his missing hype man. The pair became DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, known for light, story-driven songs such as “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Summertime.”
Money trouble pushed him toward acting. After spending freely in the late 1980s, Smith owed a large tax debt, and in 1990 NBC built a sitcom around him. In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran until 1996, he played a fictional version of himself, and the show launched his acting career.
Why it matters
Smith became one of the biggest film stars of his generation. Bad Boys, Independence Day, and Men in Black made him a leading man, and his films have grossed more than $10 billion worldwide. He earned Academy Award nominations for playing Muhammad Ali in Ali and Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness, and he won Best Actor for playing Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena Williams, in King Richard.
The same ceremony produced the moment that clouded his career. At the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, 2022, he walked onstage and slapped presenter Chris Rock over a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Later that night he accepted the Best Actor award. He then resigned from the Academy, which banned him from its events for 10 years. Debate over how the incident affects his legacy continues, but his career still spans music and screen, with four Grammy Awards alongside his Oscar.
Did you know?
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince won the very first Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance, presented in 1989 for “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”
