Willard smith bio

Willard Carroll Smith, Jr., better known as Will Smith, actor, rap and recording artist, was born in Wynnefield, Pennsylvania on September 25, 1968. His father, Willard Carroll Smith, is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a refrigerator engineer, and his mother, Caroline Bright Smith, is a public school administrator. His parents separated in 1988 and formally divorced in 2000. Smith attended Our Lady of Lourdes, a private Catholic elementary school, and Overbrook High School where he earned the nickname, “Prince.” As a senior with high SAT scores, Smith had an offer to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after high school, but he opted out of college to pursue what had already become a successful career in entertainment.

Smith’s break into show business came at age 16 with his 1986 single release “Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble,” from the album Rock the House, which he recorded with a teenage friend, Jeffrey Townes, under the duo name “Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.” The single hit the charts in 1987 rising to # 21 after eight weeks. By 1990, the album hit the Billboard Top 200.  That same year, NBC signed Smith to play the lead in his own television sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. With the success of that show, which lasted six season

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