Will Smith has enjoyed a very successful career in Hollywood for the past three decades, and he's taken on everything, from music, movies, and business to YouTube. He has never-ending ambition and he's multitalented, so there never seems to be a limit when it comes to the things Will achieves. He's already scooped up multiple Grammys and two Oscar nominations, and he was famously deemed the 'go-to' actor for a successful summer flick.

His relationship with his children, Trey, Willow, and Jaden Smith, as been as entertaining to watch as his entertainment projects. The actor is married to Jada Pinkett-Smith, who he met on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but there's so much more to Will than we know. He can still command an impressive $20 million for each and every motion picture he signs on for.

If you haven't been keeping up with his adventurous life and all of his trials and tribulations, stay tuned for 20 facts that will give you a closer look at who the real Will Smith is...

20 His Real Name

Many just assume that Will Smith is the actor’s legal name, but that’s not quite the case, as the Hollywood star, whose real name is Willard Carroll Smith Jr., made the change once he realized he was serious about a career in entertainment. Willard didn’t quite do it for Will, consequently leading to the minor change.

19 He Doesn’t Believe In Punishing His Children

This is perhaps every kid’s dream to hear - no punishment at all times. Yes, Will and Jada do not believe in any of that.

“We don’t do punishment,” Will explained. “The way that 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.”

18 He Earned His First Grammy For His Song ‘Summertime’

In 1991, after forming the duo act, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Will put out a record named Summertime, which many may remember, given that it went on to win a Grammy award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. This was Will’s first Grammy. It was a clear sign that Will's many talents were set to take him far in Hollywood.

17 He’s One Of The Highest-Paid Actors In Hollywood

Will is one of the highest-paid actors in the business, having reportedly earned $20 million for the first two Bad Boys flicks, while he’s also expected to make an astounding $35 million from Netflix’s Bright 2.

His average salary per movie stands at roughly $15 million, depending on the budget of the film. There’s no denying that his star power is still being recognized, almost three decades into his career.

16 He Turned Down The Matrix For Wild Wild West

Will has never shied away from revealing the fact that he was approached to star as Neo in The Matrix trilogy, but it appeared that he just didn’t believe in the project enough to sign on the dotted line. Instead, he went on to star in the not-so-great comedy-action flick, Wild Wild West, which was nowhere near as successful as The Matrix.

15 He Is The First Hip-Hop Star To Be Nominated For An Oscar

While he has yet to actually win an Oscar, Will Smith is the first hip-hop star to be nominated for an Oscar for his performances in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness. Both times, he was up for the Best Actor award, and even though he didn’t win, it’s still unbelievable to think that Will, who sold millions of records as a rapper before the ‘00s, had transitioned into becoming an A-list actor.

14 He Met His Wife Jada Pinkett Smith Because Of Fresh Prince

Jada Pinkett-Smith had been auditioning to star as Will’s girlfriend on the TV show, but that role was later passed over to actress Nia Long. Needless to say, Jada’s encounter with Will on set would lead to a full-on romance between the two. They would go on to get married and welcome two kids into the world - Willow and Jaden Smith.

13 He Has Three Siblings

Many don’t know that Will actually has three siblings - none of them happen to make many public appearances, but it’s believed that the movie star is very close with all of his family members. Will has a sister named Pamela, who is four years older than him, as well as siblings who are twins (Ellen and Harry). They are just three years younger.

12 He Once Dated Supermodel Tyra Banks

Before Will met Jada, Tyra Banks, who’d had a cameo on ‘Fresh Prince’, had also been linked to him. The two were said to have been dating for a short period of time before calling it quits, but their romance didn’t end on bad terms.

Since then, Tyra and Will have had plenty of friendly public encounters with each other. It was just a relationship that didn’t evolve into anything serious.

11 He Helped His Father Install Refrigerators As One Of His First Jobs

One of Will’s first jobs was far from glamorous. His father, Willard Carroll Smith, Sr., was a refrigerator engineer in Philadelphia. When Will became serious about making money in his teenage years, he joined his dad by helping him to install refrigerators in people’s houses. While that job made him enough money to get by with, Will knew he wanted more from life.

10 He Was Nearly Bankrupt Before NBC Approached Him With ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’

Yes, he amassed a fortune once he made it in Hollywood, but at the beginning of his career, Will had really bad spending habits. These spending habits led him to owe the IRS a whopping $2.8 million in unpaid taxes. The situation almost left him bankrupt in 1990, but NBC picked up The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This changed Will’s life. He learned how to manage his money a little better, maybe because he had so much more of it.

9 He’d Previously Been Married To Sheree Zampino

Prior to meeting Jada, Will had been in a three-year marriage with actress and businesswoman, Sheree Zampino. The two were married from 1992 to 1995, and it’s believed that it was Sheree who called it quits on the relationship. They share a son together (Trey Smith) and they have always remained on good terms with one another.

8 His Friendship With DJ Jazzy Jeff Went Beyond ‘The Fresh Prince’

Again, Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff had a friendship built up before working together on the sitcom. They’d already traveled the world together and made millions in revenue from their songs as a duo. They've remained close pals ever since.

It’s not uncommon to see Will and Jazzy Jeff out and about together, with friends and family - they are practically brothers at this point.

7 He Was Famously Nicknamed Mr. July

The media would often refer to Will Smith as Mr. July and it’s quite obvious as to why - the majority of his movies dropped during that month. July always proved to be a strong release time for the actor. Basically, anything that Will Smith put out in the summertime was bound to be a blockbuster hit.

6 He Can Solve The Rubik’s Cube Extremely Fast

Many fans aren’t aware that Will, despite his wild antics and funny personality, is extremely smart. He’s the only person in his family that knows how to solve Rubik’s Cube in less than a minute, which has been shown in some of his movies, such as The Pursuit of Happyness. Don’t let the funny side of this actor fool you, he’s smarter than people think.

5 He Had A Habit Of Remembering Everyone’s Lines

During his years on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will would remember everyone’s lines in the script because he deemed himself to be a perfectionist. He knew he had to be on top of his game. He was a newcomer in a sitcom with plenty of established actors.

“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,” he revealed.

4 He Was A Millionaire By The Age Of 20

While his sitcom didn’t come about until he was 21, Will had already been making money, from playing smaller roles and from his rising career as a rapper. So, it shouldn’t be hard to believe he was already a millionaire by the time he was 20.

His hustle and ambition never went unnoticed, and though having found himself with tax problems, he snapped out of it soon enough to get his finances in order.

3 Acting Is Just One Of His Many Talents

As previously mentioned, Will is a man of many talents. He's proven himself to be a fantastic actor and he's also a platinum-selling recording artist, with hits such as Miami, Men in Black, and Gettin’ Jiggy With It. He has sold a whopping 10 million albums in the United States alone and went on to win four out of eight Grammys he was nominated for.

2 He Used To Hang Around Mariah Carey

In September 2018, Will shared a throwback photo of himself with R&B superstar, Mariah Carey, instantly sending his fans into a frenzy. Nobody seemed to have been aware that these two were close early on in their careers.

Mariah gushed over the pic on his Instagram account, which was taken in the early 90s, but we have yet to see the two reunite. Carey reposted the photo with the caption: “When I only owned two dresses - one pink and one black.”

1 His First Big Movie Role Was In Six Degrees Of Separation

Will landed his big break playing the role of Paul in the 1993 flick, Six Degrees of Separation, starring alongside Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland. And while the movie didn't pull in the big bucks at the box office, it was enough for Will to be noticed in the film industry. The role helped him to become one of Hollywood's rising stars at that time.