Little friends, let me introduce you to Willard Carroll Smith II or Will Smith.
He is an American actor and rapper. He has received many accolades, including a BAFTA Award, an Academy Award, and even four Grammy Awards😲!
So, let us go through some amazing facts about the life and works of this remarkable actor and one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars.
Amazing fun facts about will smith
Will Smith was born in Philadelphia
Will Smith was born in Philadelphia on September 25, 1968.
His mom, Caroline, was a school board administrator👩🏫, and his father Williad Carrol Smith Sr., was a US Air Force veteran and also a refrigeration engineer.
Smith grew up in West Philadelphia’s Wynnefield neighborhood!
He was raised Baptist.
Smith has three siblings
He has two younger siblings, twins Ellen and Harry, and an elder sister, 👧 Pamela.
None of Smith’s siblings happen to make any public appearances. However, it is believed that this talented movie star is quite close with all of his family members!
His elder sister is four years older than him, and Smith’s younger siblings are just three years younger!
Will Smith’s real name is not Will Smith
Little friends, did you know that Will Smith is not this amazing actor’s legal name? Surprised? Let me explain.
This Hollywood 🎬star, whose legal name is Williard Carroll Smith Jr., changed his name to Will Smith!
He made the change once he realized that he was quite serious about pursuing a career in the entertainment industry!
Will turned down ‘The Matrix’ for ‘Wild Wild West’
Will has never stopped himself from revealing the fact that he was approached to portray the role of Neo in the Matrix trilogy!
However, it appeared that he just didn’t trust the project enough to sign on the dotted line!
Instead, Smith went on to star in Wild Wild West, a not-so-great comedy-action flick, which was nowhere near as successful as the movie The Matrix!
As one of his first jobs, Smith helped his father install refrigerators
Have you heard this interesting fact about Will Smith?
One of his first jobs was not glamorous at all! Smith’s father, Willian Carroll Smith, was a refrigerator engineer in Philadelphia!
When Will became serious about earning money in his teenage years, he joined his dad and helped him to install refrigerators in people’s houses!
While that job helped him to earn enough money to get by, he knew that he wanted more!
Smith can solve The Rubik’s Cube extremely fast
I am really amazed to learn this interesting fact about Will Smith! Want to explore??
Many fans don’t know that Will, despite his funny personality and wild antics, is extremely fast!
Smith is the only person in his family that knows how to solve Rubik’s Cube in less than one minute!
This has even been shown in a few of his movies, such as The Pursuit of Happiness!
So, you mustn’t let the funny side of this actor fool you, as he is smarter🧠 than people think!
Acting is just one of his multiple talents
Like me, if you are a big fan of Will Smith, then you may have already known that he is a man of many talents!
He has already proven himself to be an amazing actor and also a platinum-selling recording artist🧑🎤!
He has given some hits like Men in Black, Miami, and Getting’Jiggy With It.
He has sold a whopping 10 million albums in the entire United States alone!
Also, Will went on to win four out of eight Grammys, for which he got a nomination! Really amazing, isn’t it?
Smith had a habit of remembering everyone’s lines
During Smith’s years on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, he would remember everyone’s lines in the script!
Amazing, right?
He would remember everyone’s lines because he deemed himself to be a perfectionist!
He knew that he had to stand on top of his game!
At that time, he was a newcomer in a sitcom 🎥with a lot of established actors!
Later, he even revealed, “It was my very first role, and I was very, very focused on being successful, so I learned the whole script and everyone else’s lines.”
Smith’s first big movie role was in Six Degrees of Separation
In the 1993 flick, Six Degrees of Separation, Will Smith landed his big break portraying the role of Paul.
In the movie, he starred alongside Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing.
Though the movie didn’t pull in the big bucks at the box office, it was enough for Smith to be noticed in the film industry🎥!
The role even helped him to become one of the significant rising stars at that time!
Smith used to hang around Mariah Carey
Little fact-enthusiasts, have you heard this amazing secret about Smith?
In September 2018, Smith shared a throwback photo📷 of himself with Mariah Carey, a R&B superstar!
This instantly sent his fans into a frenzy!
Nobody seemed to have been aware of the fact these two talented persons were quite close early on in their careers!
Carey gushed over the pic on his Instagram account! It was taken in the early 90s; however, we have yet to see these two reunite!
Carey reposted the photo, along with a caption stating, “When I only owned two dresses – one pink and one black!
Smith became a millionaire by the age 20
While Smith’s sitcom didn’t come around until he was 21 years old, Will had already been making enough money from his rising career as a rapper and from playing smaller roles.
So, it is not so hard to believe that Smith was already a millionaire💲 by the time when he was just 20 years of age!
Smith’s ambition and hustle never went unnoticed! Though he was having some tax issues, he snapped out of it soon enough to get his finances in order!
Will Smith was famously nicknamed Mr. July
Like me, you might have already known this amazing fact about Smith! No?? Let’s explore it.
The media would frequently refer to Will Smith as Mr. July!
It is quite obvious why most of his movies dropped during that month!
The month of July always proved to be a really strong release time for the actor!
Generally, anything that Smith put out in the summertime☀️ was proved to be a blockbuster hit!
Smith’s friendship with DJ Jazzy: It was beyond “The Fresh Prince”
Before working together on the famous sitcom, Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff had a friendship built up!
They’d already traveled the world together and even made millions in revenue from their popular songs as a duo!
Ever since these two have remained close friends!
It is not uncommon to see Jeff and Will out and about together with family and friends because they are practically brothers at this point!
Will had previously married Sheree Zampino
Before meeting Jada, Will Smith had been in a three-year marriage with Sheree Zampino, an actress and businesswoman!
The two got married in 1992, and the marriage ended in 1995.
It is believed that it was Sheree who called it quits on the relationship!
These two had a son together, Trey Smith👦, and they have always remained on good terms with each other!
Will was almost bankrupt prior to NBC approaching him
Did you know this surprising fact about Will Smith?
We all know that Will amassed a fortune once he started acting in Hollywood!
However, at the beginning of his career, Smith had very bad spending habits!
These spending habits of Smith resulted in him to owing the IRS a whopping amount of $2.8 million in unpaid taxes.
In 1990, this situation almost left him bankrupt!
However, NBC picked up the famous The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which completely changed Smith’s life!
Eventually, Will learned how to manage his money a little better, maybe because he had quite a lot of it.
Smith once dated supermodel Tyra Banks
Prior to Smith’s meeting with Jada, Tyra Banks had also been linked to him!
She had a cameo on ‘Fresh Prince.’
The two were rumored to have been dating for a short period of time prior to calling it quits! However, their romance didn’t end on bad terms!
Since then, Will and Tyra have had a lot of friendly public encounters with each other!
It was only a relationship that didn’t evolve into anything serious!
Will met his wife, Jada Pinkett during the making of Fresh Prince
Jada Pinkett-Smith had been auditioning to play the role of Will’s girlfriend on the TV show Fresh Prince!
However, the role was later passed over to actress Nia Long!
There is no need to say Jada’s encounter with Smith on set would result in a full-on romance between the two!
The couple would go on to get married💒! Later, they welcomed two kids into the world, Willow and Jaden Smith.
Will Smith is the first Hip-Hop star to be nominated for an Oscar
I am really amazed to explore this interesting fact about Will Smith!
While Smith has yet to actually win an Oscar, he is the first hip-hop star who got a nomination for an Oscar🥇 for his performances in The Pursuit of Happiness and Ali.
In both cases, he was up for the Best Actor award!
Even though he didn’t become the winner, it is still unbelievable to think that Smith, who sold millions of records before the 90s as a rapper, had transitioned into becoming an A-list actor!
Smith received his first Grammy for his song ‘Summertime’
In the year 1991, after the formation of the duo act DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Smith put out a record known as ‘Summertime.’
This many may remember because it went on to win a Grammy award for Best Rap Performance by a Group or Duo!
This was Smith’s first Grammy!
It was quite evident that Smith’s many talents were set to take him really far in Hollywood!
Will Smith: One of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood
Will Smith is one of the highest-paid actors in the business! Amazing, right?
He reportedly earned $20 million for the first two Bad Boys flicks!
Also, Smith is expected to make a surprising $35 million from Netflix’s Bright 2.
Smith’s average salary per film stands at around $15 million, depending on the film’s budget!
There is no denying that Smith’s star power is still being recognized, even after three decades into his career!
Will Smith doesn’t believe in punishing his kids
Like us, this is perhaps every child’s dream to hear- no punishment at all times!
Yes, Will and his wife Jada don’t believe in any of that!
Will explained, “We don’t do punishment.”
He further added, “The way we deal with our kids is they are responsible for their lives. Our concept is, as young as possible, give them as much control over their lives as possible, and the concept of punishment, our experience has been- it has a little too much of a negative quality.”
Smith broke a Guinness World Record in just 12 hours
In the year 2005, “Hitch” set a box office for the biggest romantic comedy 👩❤️💋👨opening!! While that amazing record has since been topped, Will would set another milestone with “Hitch.”
Smith visited three red-carpet events in just 12 hours to promote the movie! Thus, he set a Guinness World Record!
This feat become more impressive considering that during that time, Smith traveled from Manchester to London to Birmingham! 😲!
We can see why he didn’t have time for any costume changes.
He just wore a casual camel coat, jeans, and a leather hat to each event. Impressive, isn’t it?
Summing up
Will Smith…isn’t the person, and the facts about him are quite amazing! 😲!
We have tried to collect as much information about him as possible…so that your treasure of knowledge is enhanced!!
Looking forward to getting your views!!
I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. Here to help you with play-based learning activities for kids. ( Check my Next startup Cledemy.Com)
