From West Philadelphia to Stardom: Will Smith's Biography

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Question 2
The biography of Will Smith is a part of the Black Americans of Achievement series written by Anne M. Todd. This biography tells the story of Smith’s life, from growing up in West Philadelphia to owning a mansion in the hills of Los Angeles. This book also outlines his many achievements in and around film, on record, and just how successful he has been in his everyday life. Todd writes this book in time sequence order of Smith’s life which shows how he worked his way up to stardom from an ordinary high school student. When Todd tells Smith’s life story she paints a very positive image of him by describing all of his contributions to his community. Previously regarding Will Smith as just another, rich, successful actor because of …show more content…

His parents separated when he was thirteen years old due to the constant struggle and stresses over paying the bills as well as what the future would hold for the family. Their relationship deteriorated from the daily issues that came with raising four children on a tight budget. Will Smith and his siblings moved with their mother to their grandmother’s house a couple blocks away. This is where the life changing events occurred, with his grandmother, in West Philadelphia because of how much of an influence Smith’s grandmother had on him in his early life. Smith would always be trying his best to make his grandmother proud whether it was in church while he was playing the piano during the church service or in his songs with his friends at parties. One night Smith left his song notebook out and his grandmother read one of the songs, when she saw the profanity in the song she simply said to Smith, “At least you are happy with yourself.” From that point on all of Smith’s songs were clean and lacking all types profanity and this was just to please his grandmother. Smith’s grandmother also gave him a very helpful piece of advice when he was very young, “Don’t let failure go to your heart and don’t let success go to your head.” During his rise to stardom Smith took this advice to heart, continued working hard no matter the situation, so without the separation of his parents and …show more content…

The first trait that Smith has, is the ability to never doubt himself or to ever give up and when getting started in his career this was very helpful. Even when the important figures in his life like his mother and father did not want him to pursue music because they did not think it would be a successful life path he still pushed on and made himself successful. Or when his attempts to get into the big movies were slow going, he kept at it and eventually got the part in his first big movie, Bad Boys. Smith also possess the ability to charm someone to get what he wants or to get out of trouble. Throughout high school Smith was known by his teachers as “Prince” for his ability to get on to someone’s good side and to be able to talk his way out of trouble. Smith was also able to use his charming abilities to gain the attention and support of his manager, James Lassiter, who was very impressed with Smith’s personality after their first meeting in Smith’s senior year of high school. The final piece to his great personality is his overall ability to be funny and entertaining. Growing up in West Philadelphia, the community that Smith lived in always appreciated his wisecracks and jokes to cheer them up even in the toughest of times. To be successful in the movies and on television Smith relied on his upbeat and funny personality to entertain his viewers and him being so entertaining

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