The history of pop icons attempting to make it in Hollywood is a long and often sad one. Cher was a big success, with Jon Bon Jovi looking good for the future, while the likes of David Bowie and Mick Jagger have made many a sorry attempt to cut it. The world of rap has a far better record of producing film stars. Tupac caused a major stir before his untimely death, LL Cool J's star is rising, as is Queen Latifah's. And then there's the biggest of them all - Will Smith, formerly known as The Fresh Prince, surely the most successful crossover star of the modern era.

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.

Influenced both by Eddie Murphy and new hip-hop heroes like Grandmaster Flash, Will began rapping at the age of 12, quickly developing his own slick, semi-comic style. Then, at age 16, he met the man with whom he would score his first worldwide success. At a party in Philadelphia, he cracked a joke that fell flat with everyone. Everyone, that is, except DJ Jazzy Jeff - real name Jeff Townes - who had himself been working at music since the age of 10. The pair became firm friends and began to collaborate, Jeff as DJ, Will as rapper (having expanded his nickname to Fresh Prince). So vigorous was their pursuit of musical excellence that Will even turned down a scholarship to Boston's super-prestigious MIT in order to follow his dream.

The history of pop icons attempting to make it in Hollywood is a long and often sad one. Cher was a big success, with Jon Bon Jovi looking good for the future, while the likes of David Bowie and Mick Jagger have made many a sorry attempt to cut it. The world of rap has a far better record of producing film stars. Tupac caused a major stir before his untimely death, LL Cool J's star is rising, as is Queen Latifah's. And then there's the biggest of them all - Will Smith, formerly known as The Fresh Prince, surely the most successful crossover star of the modern era.

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.

Influenced both by Eddie Murphy and new hip-hop heroes like Grandmaster Flash, Will began rapping at the age of 12, quickly developing his own slick, semi-comic style. Then, at age 16, he met the man with whom he would score his first worldwide success. At a party in Philadelphia, he cracked a joke that fell flat with everyone. Everyone, that is, except DJ Jazzy Jeff - real name Jeff Townes - who had himself been working at music since the age of 10. The pair became firm friends and began to collaborate, Jeff as DJ, Will as rapper (having expanded his nickname to Fresh Prince). So vigorous was their pursuit of musical excellence that Will even turned down a scholarship to Boston's super-prestigious MIT in order to follow his dream.

The history of pop icons attempting to make it in Hollywood is a long and often sad one. Cher was a big success, with Jon Bon Jovi looking good for the future, while the likes of David Bowie and Mick Jagger have made many a sorry attempt to cut it. The world of rap has a far better record of producing film stars. Tupac caused a major stir before his untimely death, LL Cool J's star is rising, as is Queen Latifah's. And then there's the biggest of them all - Will Smith, formerly known as The Fresh Prince, surely the most successful crossover star of the modern era.

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.

Influenced both by Eddie Murphy and new hip-hop heroes like Grandmaster Flash, Will began rapping at the age of 12, quickly developing his own slick, semi-comic style. Then, at age 16, he met the man with whom he would score his first worldwide success. At a party in Philadelphia, he cracked a joke that fell flat with everyone. Everyone, that is, except DJ Jazzy Jeff - real name Jeff Townes - who had himself been working at music since the age of 10. The pair became firm friends and began to collaborate, Jeff as DJ, Will as rapper (having expanded his nickname to Fresh Prince). So vigorous was their pursuit of musical excellence that Will even turned down a scholarship to Boston's super-prestigious MIT in order to follow his dream.

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.

Having received $5 million for Men In Black, $14 million for Enemy Of The State, and an amazing 20 million (plus a percentage of gross profits) for Ali, MIB2 and Bad Boys 2, Smith is one of Hollywood's prime earners. Deservedly so when you consider his movies' box office takings ($144 million for I, Robot, $160 million for Shark Tale and $122 million for Hitch in juts three weeks). He's also busied himself as a producer, having set up his own production company, Overbrook Entertainment with partner James Lassiter. The company is said to be working on a remake of Clint Eastwood's infamous stalker-flick Play Misty For Me. Then there's his Treybell Development company, which deals in building projects in Philadelphia. But not everything has been golden for this golden boy. It could have been considered a mistake to turn down the role of Neo in The Matrix and the lead in Phone Booth. It was certainly unfortunate when, in the summer of 2003, the relative failure of Will's third album and his Greatest Hits led to him being dropped by Columbia Records.

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.