Abstract: At 28 Smith has had a career in as a rap
                     singer, a hit television series and is in demand as a
                     film star. During his teens he was part of DJ Jazzy
                     Jeff and the Fresh Prince. He then starred for six
                     years on 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' while making
                     films, including his latest, 'Independence Day.'

                     Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 Johnson Publishing Company
                     Inc.

                     Will Smith has seamlessly moved from being a
                     successful rapper to star of NBC's hit "Fresh Prince
                     of Bel-Air" to quickly becoming a No. 1 big screen,
                     box-office draw with his performance in the mega hit
                     film Independence Day.
                     Smith, now 28, first made headlines almost a decade
                     ago when he was part of the hit-making rap duo DJ
                     Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince.

                     Eleven years ago, Smith and friend Jeff Townes formed
                    the rap duo D. J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. As
                     The Fresh Prince, Smith dropped witty, good-humored
                     rhymes, while Townes, known as D. J. Jazzy Jeff,
                    deejayed.

                     The two recorded six albums and garnered numerous top
                     tunes which included Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble,
                     Rock the House, Nightmare on My Street, I Think I Can
                     Beat Mike Tyson, and Boom! Shake the Room.
                     They carved their mark in the music industry when, in
                     1988, they became the first rap duo or group to win a
                     Grammy Award. The duo won for the song, Parents Just
                     Don't Understand. And, in 1991, they won a second
                     Grammy Award in the same category for the tune
                     Summertime.

                     Then Smith was bitten by the acting bug. He joined
                     the cast of the sitcom "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"
                     where, for six years, he humored audiences with his
                     unique brand of humor on the NBC show. The fun-loving
                     comedian disarmed both Black and White audiences with
                     that special gift of humor. He always managed to come
                     across to audiences as nice and genuine. His rap
                     partner, Jazzy Jeff, also was a regular on the
                     sitcom.

                    Smith said his father was the person who gave him the
                     advice that has made his move from rap to television
                     and movies easier.

                     "What my father always made very clear to me is just
                     do one thing well, just make sure you can focus,"
                     Smith pointed out. "If you do one thing well,
                     everything else will come from that. I started off
                     rapping, and I did it as a hobby. And that's when you
                     really get good at something. When you enjoy what you
                     do, you're gonna get good at it. And I just really
                     concentrated on it, and I focused on it and the
                     television show came from that and I worked really
                     hard."

                     And now, he has conquered the big screen, winning
                     over a whole new set of fans. But his move to the big
                     screen was very methodical. While still doing "Fresh
                     Prince," Smith performed in the 1992 movie Where the
                     Day Takes You and Made In America in 1993. But it was
                     his stunning performance the same year in the movie

                     Six Degrees of Separation which won him rave reviews.
                     The versatile actor portrayed Paul Poitier, a gay con
                     artist masquerading as legendary actor Sidney
                     Poitier's son. He also teamed with fellow comic
                     Martin Lawrence to play Det. Mike Lowrey, a wealthy,
                     laid-back, unorthodox law enforcement official in Bad
                     Boys. That movie turned out to be a major hit for the
                     two.

                     Then, last summer, came the biggest hit of recent
                     years. Independence Day pulled in a record $306. 1
                     million in 1996, and it was the No. 1 box office
                     grosser of the year. When asked why they chose to
                     cast Smith as one of the three male leads (Jeff
                     Goldblum and Bill Pullman are the others), producers
                     said they wanted a Black actor and one with the kind
                     of universal appeal that Smith had demonstrated.
                     As Steven Hiller, a Marine fighter pilot undertaking
                     the dangerous mission of going into an alien
                    spacecraft to prevent it from destroying planet
                     Earth, Smith showed his comic and dramatic side.
                     Besides good reviews, Smith garnered another, quite
                    unexpected benefit from that movie. He's become a sex
                     symbol for many female fans. And, for him, that's
                     been a double-edged sword.
                     For example, he recently told Movieline: "I was in
                     Manhattan making Men In Black and this girl was
                     driving along, saw me and started mouthing over and
                     over, `Oh my God. Oh, my God,' then crashed into
                     another car. Now, she gets out of her car, but she
                     doesn't say, `Oh, I crashed into the back of a car!'
                     She runs over to me and asks for my autograph. That's
                     when I thought: This is real different. Then, I was
                     at the Virgin Megastore in Manhattan and this girl
                     came up to me, pulled her shirt up and asked me to
                     sign her breasts with a Sharpie. I mean, she's
                    standing there in the middle of the store with her
                     breasts hanging out, and I'm like, `Listen, those are
                     really nice breasts, but this is really an
                     inappropriate time and place.' In another store, this
                     toothless 80-year-old lady came up to me, grabbed my
                     face and tried to kiss me right on the lips. I said,
                     `Now, ma'am, if I walked up to you, grabbed your face
                     and tried to kiss you on the mouth, the cops would
                     give me a Rodney King and take me right to jail.' And
                     she was like, `Oh, stop being mean. Just give me a
                     kiss.' I mean, geriatric tongue kisses are pretty
                     much out, in my book."
                     Smith also pointed out that another downside of the
                     phenomenal success of Independence Day has been that
                     some buffed guys see him and immediately want to see
                     how good a fighter he is. All the years he was just
                     the Fresh Prince, he said, "I was nonthreatening. So
                     nobody wanted to fight me, but then I buffed up for
                     Independence Day, came on a little cocky, and
                     suddenly people want to knock me down."

                     One of the roles he really wanted but didn't get was
                     the smooth and clever psychopathic killer in Just
                     Cause. Blair Underwood got the nod for that movie
                     which also featured Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw.

                     But now, Smith has moved to the top of the list when
                     scripts are sent out. And not just to Black actors.
                     He recently wrapped up his science-fiction, action
                     comedy, Men in Black, where he will star opposite
                     Tommy Lee Jones. He wasn't too keen on doing
                     back-to-back movies featuring aliens. But legendary
                     Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg convinced him
                     that the film would be very different from
                     Independence Day.

                     Benny Medina, one of the producers of "Fresh Prince,"
                     was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying that he
                     envisioned Smith being a big movie success even
                     before a single episode of the hit sitcom was shot.
                     "Movies were something he said he wanted to do the
                     first time we talked to him," he said. "Within the
                     next couple of days, he had to do an audition, and he
                     picked up this lousy script and read life into lines
                     he had never seen before in front of the network
                     brass and everyone. Afterward, I realized I had just
                     sat through one of those moments that people always
                     talk about having. Once he was in front of the
                     camera, he still had the ability to completely
                     capture your attention and really hold it."
                     Smith theorized that he was able to cross over from
                     television to movies because he learned to maximize
                     every single moment, he told the Tribune. "That's why
                     TV actors pop on film screens, especially TV comics.
                     Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams. What happens
                     is, from doing TV comedy, you work so hard to
                     maximize every single individual second, then when
                     you get to do a movie, you have all the time you
                     need. 'What? You mean I can try 15 or 20 different
                     options?' You gotta love that! The energy seems to
                     come through from that training."

                     And for Smith, the training is paying off handsomely.
                     He is getting swamped with scripts now. And, of
                     course, the expectations have increased as well. Some
                     movie industry observers are waiting to see if
                     Smith's next big release, Men in Black, will bring in
                     as much money as Independence Day. He knows the
                     long-standing axiom in Hollywood is "What have you
                     done for me lately?"

                     But Smith is very unaffected. He's already seen the
                     highs and lows of success. He was rich by 18 and
                     nearly bankrupt by 19. Smith, a divorced, single
                     father of a 4-year-old son who bears his same name,
                     has been dating actress Jada Pinkett, a woman he
                     affectionately calls "Miss Jada," for the last couple
                     of years. So, Smith figures he's ready for whatever
                     his current fling with success will bring.