Hi everyone and welcome to the blog. This week’s blog is entitled The Comedy King and The Fresh Prince and is dedicated to two iconic members of comedy royalty who’s birthdays are celebrated and remembered this week Ronnie Barker and Will Smith.
Ronnie Barker was born, Ronald William George “Ronnie” Barker, on 25 September 1929 in Bedford, to Leonard and Edith Barker. His father was a clerk for Shell Oil. He had two sisters, Vera and Eileen. The family moved to Cowley, Oxfordshire when Barker was four. As a child, Barker enjoyed dressing up and developed a love of the theatre, often attending plays with his family. The first play he saw was Cottage to Let and he once skipped school in order to see Laurence Olivier in Henry V. He frequently stood outside stage-doors to collect autographs, his first being the actress Celia Johnson. Barker attended Donnington Junior School and then the City of Oxford High School for Boys. Barker’s chemistry textbook at Oxford was previously owned by T.E. Lawrence.
He found his talent for humour at school and developed his musical ability by singing in the choir at St James’, his local church. He got in to the sixth form a year early after gaining the School Certificate but he felt what he was learning would be of no use to him in later life and so left as soon as he could. After leaving school he trained as an architect but gave it up after six months, feeling he was not skilled enough. Barker took his sister Vera’s job as a bank clerk at the Westminster Bank (after she had left to become a nurse). Barker harboured dreams of becoming an actor, his father however was not supportive of his acting ambition. He worked in amateur dramatics for 18 months while at the bank, as an actor and stage manager, making his first appearance in A Murder Has Been Arranged as the musical director of the play-within-a-play. Eventually he gave up his job to become a professional actor. Barker failed to get into the Young Vic School, but joined the Manchester Repertory Company, which was based in Aylesbury, often taking comic roles in their weekly shows. Initially he was employed as the assistant to the assistant stage manager, earning £2.10 a week. He made his debut as a professional actor on November 15, 1948 as Lieutenant Spicer in a performance of J. M. Barrie’s Quality Street. He went on to play the organist in When We Are Married and by his third role, the chauffeur Charles in Miranda, Barker realised he wanted to be a comic actor. He was described as “having the talent to be a great straight actor”, but noted: “I want to make people laugh. Never mind about Hamlet. Forget Richard the Second. Give me Charley’s Aunt. My mission in life was now crystal clear.” He appeared in stages adaptations of Treasure Island and Red Riding Hood before getting his first leading role in The Guinea Pig as a working class boy at a public school. When the production moved to Rhyl, Barker followed. The Manchester Repertory Company closed, as did the Rhyl company shortly after. Barker, aged 20, then spent some time as a porter at Wingfield Hospital; he became distressed through his contact with polio patients and so opted to take on the persona of “Charlie” so as not to be himself. He and a male nurse often entertained the patients with comedy routines. He found work at the Mime Theatre Company, performing mimed folk music and dance, which soon folded in Penzance. He made his way back to Oxford and then worked in Bramhall for The Famous Players. There he met actor Glenn Melvyn; the two became firm friends and Barker stated Melvyn taught him everything he “ever learned about comedy.”
He joined the Oxford Playhouse in 1951 and worked there for three years, appearing in plays such as He Who Gets Slapped as the clown. Peter Hall worked with Barker at Oxford and gave him his break, casting him as the Chantyman and Joe Silva in his production of Mourning Becomes Electra at the Arts Theatre in London’s West End in 1955. By the time he had made it to the West End, Barker had appeared in an estimated 350 plays. Barker remained a West End actor for several years, appearing in numerous plays between 1955 and 1968. These included, in 1955, two performances each night as he played a gypsy in Listen to the Wind at the Arts Theatre and then a peasant in Summertime later in the evening. Other roles included Mr Thwaites in Double Image in 1956 (with Olivier), Camino Real (directed by Hall) in 1957, French gangster Robertoles-Diams in Irma La Douce for two years from 1958, Lord Slingsby-Craddock in Mr Whatnot in 1964 and Birdboot in The Real Inspector Hound in 1968. He also appeared in several Royal Court Theatre productions, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Quince.
Barker’s theatrical success enabled him to move in to radio work. Barker, who had previously been known by his birth name “Ronald”, was now referred to as the shortened form “Ronnie”, after a director changed it in the credits, although he did not tell Barker. His first radio appearance was in 1956, playing Lord Russett in Floggit’s. He went on to play multiple characters, but primarily the lookout Able Seaman ‘Fatso’ Johnson and Lieutenant-Commander Stanton, in The Navy Lark, a navy based sitcom on the BBC Light Programme, which ran from 1959 to 1977, with Barker featuring in some 300 episodes. He also featured in the show’s radio spin-off The TV Lark as Fatso Johnson, a camera operator, and as a trainee chef in Crowther’s Crowd in 1963, and had roles on Variety Playhouse. Barker soon began working in film and television. His first acting job on television was in Melvyn’s show I’m Not Bothered. He appeared in various roles in the comedy series The Seven Faces of Jim from 1962, alongside Jimmy Edwards and June Whitfield, as well as parts in Bold as Brass and Foreign Affairs (as the Russian ambassador Grischa Petrovitch). This was followed with dramatic parts in A Tale of Two Cities as Jerry Cruncher in 1965 as well as single episode roles in The Saint and The Avengers, in which he played Cheshire, a cat lover. He also appeared in films such as Doctor in Distress (1963), Father Came Too! (1963) and A Home of Your Own (1965).
In 1966, Barker got his break with the satirical sketch series The Frost Report, having been recommended for the show by producer James Gilbert. The show starred David Frost, John Cleese and Barker’s future comedy partner Ronnie Corbett, whom he had met in 1963 when Corbett was the barman at the Buckstone Club near Haymarket Theatre, and the two became friends. Corbett stated in his autobiography that the two had gravitated towards each other because of their similar backgrounds; neither had attended university, while many of the other Frost Report cast and writers had. Each episode of the show, which was performed and broadcast live, was focused on a single topic and principally revolved around a continuous monologue from Frost, with sketches from Barker, Corbett and Cleese as the show went on. Barker starred alongside Cleese and Corbett in The Frost Report’s most well known sketch, which satirised the British class system, with Barker representing the middle class.
After the first series, the special Frost Over England was produced, winning the Golden Rose at the Montreux Television Festival. With a second series of the show announced, Frost, recognising their potential, signed both Barker and Corbett up to his production company David Paradine Productions. As part of the deal Barker was given his own show in 1968, The Ronnie Barker Playhouse, which comprised six separate, thirty minute plays. Barker starred in each piece as a different character. After two series of The Frost Report on the BBC, totalling 26 half-hour episodes, Frost moved to ITV after helping to set up London Weekend Television. There, Frost hosted Frost on Sunday, with Barker and Corbett following and again performing sketches on the programme. Barker began writing sketches for the programme under the pseudonym Gerald Wiley. Barker and Corbett had a greater role on the show than on The Frost Report and Corbett felt “more aware of what [they] were doing.”
Barker began using the pseudonym Gerald Wiley when writing sketches because he wished the pieces to be accepted on merit and not just because he, as a star of the programme, had written them; he continued this tradition with the material he wrote later in his career. Barker brought his sketches in, claiming they had come from Wiley through Barker’s agent Peter Eade, and they were very well received. In order to maintain the deception, Barker had criticised material he himself had submitted under the pseudonym; when a Wiley-credited sketch about a ventriloquist had been poorly received by the audience Barker told Corbett “Well, Gerald Wiley let us down there”, and on another occasion, when looking at a script, “I don’t understand this line. What’s he getting at?” One of the first sketches he wrote was called “Doctor’s Waiting Room”, with the main part written for Corbett. Barker encouraged Corbett to buy the rights to the sketch and, further maintaining the myth, told him to reject Wiley’s ‘request’ for £3,000 as too expensive, before giving Corbett the sketch for free. Speculation began about Wiley’s identity, with Tom Stoppard, Frank Muir, Alan Bennett and Noël Coward all rumoured. After the second series of Frost on Sunday, the cast and crew were invited to a Chinese restaurant, while Wiley said that he would reveal himself. Barker, who had told Corbett earlier in the day, stood up and announced he was Wiley, although initially nobody believed him.
In 1969 Barker was able to produce the film Futtocks End which featured no dialogue and only “grumble[s] and grunt[s]”; Barker played General Futtock in the film and also wrote it. The Ronnie Barker Playhouse had been designed to find a successful idea for a sitcom, and the episode “Ah, There You Are” by Alun Owen, which introduced the bumbling aristocratic character Lord Rustless, was chosen. The character returned for the 1969-1970 series Hark at Barker as the main character; Barker wrote for the show under the name Jonathan Cobbald. As Wiley he wrote the 1971 series Six Dates with Barker. Despite Barker’s success on ITV, LWT’s programme controller Stella Richman opted to fire Frost’s company Paradine and as Barker was contracted to the company rather than the network, he lost his job, as did Corbett.
Soon after, Barker, Corbett and Josephine Tewson performed a sketch about Henry VIII at the 1971 BAFTAs, with Barker playing Henry. The two also had to keep the audience entertained for eight or so minutes as the show was stopped because of technical difficulties. Their performance at the award show impressed the BBC’s Head of Light Entertainment Bill Cotton and Controller of BBC One Paul Fox, who were sitting in the audience. Not knowing they were both essentially unemployed, although still contracted to Paradine, Cotton signed the duo up for their own show together, and a series each on their own; he later joked he “must have offered them too much money.” Barker and Corbett wished to avoid being remembered primarily as a duo, and felt they could not work in the same way as a conventional double act like Morecambe and Wise, and so each maintained their solo careers as well. They each were given a one-off variety special; Barker’s, called The Ronnie Barker Yearbook, featured a sketch for each month of the year, although because of time constraints the first two had to be cut. Barker also reprised his character Lord Rustless in the sitcom His Lordship Entertains in 1972. Barker wrote all seven episodes, again with the pseudonym Jonathan Cobbald.
Their show together was The Two Ronnies, a sketch show which aired for twelve series between 1971 and 1986, to immediate success. The show, as described by Anthony Hayward of The Independent, was “a cocktail of comedy sketches, playlets, songs and parodies, a long-winded Corbett monologue and a singing star, sandwiched between the opening and closing news summaries.” The usual format consisted of many sketches between the two, an ongoing filmed serial, a solo character sketch from Barker, Corbett’s monologue, a musical number, a special guest, bookended by joke news items, delivered from a desk by the two in the style of newsreaders, before ending with the catchphrase “It’s good night from me – and it’s good night from him.” This was a set format which was used for almost the entirety of the show’s run. The end catchphrase and newsreader characters were devised because Barker found it difficult to appear as himself: Corbett explained that Barker “was a very private man, a quiet man…He found it almost impossible to talk directly, as himself, to an audience.” Each also had their own solo segments to help ensure they were not totally associated as a double act. Filming took place over four months of each year. After outdoor and serial sketches were filmed on location, the studio material was filmed on Sunday evenings at BBC Television Centre in front a live audience; the musical finale was filmed the day before without the audience.
Barker wrote much of the show’s material, roughly three-quarters, again under the name Gerald Wiley. He was heavily involved with the show’s production, especially the serial. Corbett explained that Barker was a “perfectionist” and “as he wrote it Ronnie knew how he wanted every shot to look.” After filming the show all day, he spent the evenings helping technician Jim Franklin edit it. While filming on location Barker and Corbett would look through all of the potential material for the studio recording of the rest of the show’s content and decide on the running order. He and Corbett always got on, with Barker noting “People refuse to believe that we don’t have rows, tensions, private wars. It’s a strange thing after so many years but we never have. Actually, it’s even more amicable than a marriage – wedlock without the bad patches. Our sense of humour and perception of what’s good and what’s rubbish are uncommonly in tune.” They took turns to play the parts which had the “good lines”. One of the show’s other writers, Barry Cryer, said: “You could write almost anything knowing these two would do it brilliantly. Because they weren’t a double act; they were two men who worked together and had their own careers.”
Barker’s material included the sketch which came to be known as “Four Candles”, airing in 1976, although in the original script it was entitled “Annie Finkhouse”. It sees a customer (Barker) ask for a series of things in a hardware store. The sketch’s humour derives from similarities in word pronunciation, leading to confusion on the part of the store owner (Corbett). These misunderstandings include the confusion between “four candles” and “fork handles”. The idea for the sketch came from the owners of a hardware shop in Hayes, Hillingdon who wrote in to The Two Ronnies to describe some of the amusing events and misunderstandings in their store. Barker was never happy with the sketch’s final line (a male assistant asking “What sort of billhooks did you want?”) and changed it (to a female assistant asking “What sort of knockers were you looking for?”) for the stage version of The Two Ronnies, although was still not totally satisfied with it. Nevertheless, the sketch is considered the show’s most famous one and was voted as the show’s best in a TV special, while also placing fifth on Channel 4’s 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches. The original script, hand-written by Barker, was sold for £48,500 at auction in 2007 after being featured on an episode of Antiques Roadshow the previous year.
The show was considered a “national institution” with audiences of between 15 and 20 million regularly tuning in to its 98 episodes. Barker won the BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1971 and 1977 for the show. The Two Ronnies ended with the 1986 Christmas special. In 1978 the two performed a stage version of the show at the London Palladium; lasting for three months, it followed the same format as the show, with old sketches and some new material, supported by variety acts. Barker’s unease with appearing as himself in the stage show led him to create a fictionalized version of himself to play instead. A second stage series took place in 1983.
After a tip off from Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, Barker and Corbett opted to move with their families to Sydney, Australia in 1979 for the year in order to exploit a tax loophole and avoid paying the year’s income tax. They performed their stage show for four weeks in Sydney and a further four in Melbourne; due to their existing popularity in Australia and, what Corbett terms, the Australian audiences’ “[comedic] soul that still related to the UK,” they made no changes to the routine. Barker made no other appearances that year and spent his time writing and engaging in recreational activities. Following the show’s success, Kerry Packer commissioned a six episode TV series of The Two Ronnies in Australia for Nine Network. The show comprised material not yet shown in Australia from The Two Ronnies and new content targeted more towards an Australian audience. They returned for a second series in 1986.
Barker and Corbett also starred in the short, mostly silent, films The Picnic (1975) and By the Sea (1982). By the Sea was Barker’s tribute to the seaside postcard humour of Donald McGill and his most “personal” work. In 1980 they appeared in the short-lived American variety show The Big Show; the two were glad the show did not last as they objected to the use of canned laughter by the American networks.
Following the success of The Two Ronnies, the BBC let Barker decide what he wanted to do. The Two Ronnies took up one third of a year to produce, allowing time for Barker and Corbett to each do a solo project. Barker’s opted to produce some sitcom pilots shown as part of 1973’s Seven of One. Two of these pilots, Open All Hours (written by Roy Clarke) and Prisoner and Escort (written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais) became series. Prisoner and Escort became Porridge, airing from 1974–1977, with Barker starring as the cynical and cunning prisoner Norman Stanley Fletcher. The first sitcom to take place in a prison, The Times said the show “was about what it took to survive in prison, the little day-to-day triumphs over the system that kept the prisoners sane.” The show became a huge success, attracting 15 million viewers and earning what the BBC described as “a chorus of critical acclaim and public adoration for what remains one of the most classic British sitcoms ever produced.” The Times called Fletcher his “finest creation”. Barker privately regarded the series as the finest work of his career. He won the BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1975 for his performance.
In 1976, Barker played Friar Tuck in the film Robin and Marian, directed by Richard Lester.[4] The same year, determined not to be remembered only as Fletcher, Barker opted to end Porridge after two series and instead focused on the second pilot Open All Hours, alongside David Jason. Barker starred as Arkwright, a money-grabbing, stuttering shopkeeper. Arkwright’s stutter was not in the script; Barker was inspired to use it by Melvyn’s performance and use of a stutter in a 1955 play the two performed at the Palace Theatre called Hot Water. Open All Hours aired one series in 1976 on BBC Two but was not renewed due to low ratings. As a result, Barker backtracked on his earlier decision and produced a third series of Porridge, as well as a film adaptation. It was followed by the spin-off sitcom Going Straight which focused on Fletcher after his release from prison. While not as popular as Porridge, Barker again won the BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Performance. Plans to further the show were ended when Barker’s co-star Richard Beckinsale died of a heart attack in 1979 aged 31. With repeats of Open All Hours earning high ratings on BBC One, the BBC commissioned a further series of the show in 1981, with another two made as well as the show continued its ratings success. Both shows placed in the top ten of the 2004 poll to determine Britain’s Best Sitcom; Porridge finished seventh and Open All Hours eighth. Barker’s next sitcom, The Magnificent Evans, which was about a Welsh photographer and aired in 1984, was not successful. His final sitcom, Clarence in which he played Clarence Sale, a removal man with failing sight, aired in 1988. Barker wrote the show himself, again using a pseudonym, this time as “Bob Ferris”.
“I had completely run out of ideas and it scared and panicked me. I was always able to write scripts but, you know, I couldn’t think of a single thing to write about. It was a very weird sensation. I had seen friends of mine start burning out. No one wants to see a 70-year-old on television who can’t remember his lines. And also I had lost interest” —Barker on his decision to retire.
In 1987, before Clarence aired and after rejecting Hall’s offer of the part of Falstaff in a Royal National Theatre production of Henry IV, Part 1 & 2, Barker retired from show business, aged 58, “at the height of his fame”, citing a decline in his own writing quality, lack of ambition and ideas, and a desire to go out on top so as not to damage his legacy, as well as concerns about the state of his heart. He had decided to retire in 1985 but his decision was kept secret for two years. He made his decision public on an appearance on the chat show Wogan. Retired, Barker opened and ran an antiques shop called The Emporium in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. He joked: “I lose money every week, but it’s a hobby. It’s cheaper than skiing and safer at my age.”Due to its unprofitability, they sold the shop after ten years. He resisted all calls to come out of retirement from then onwards. He wrote his autobiography, Dancing in the Moonlight: My Early Years on Stage in 1993 and released All I Ever Wrote, his complete scripts, in 1999. He wrote the play Mum for his daughter Charlotte Barker in 1998, which was performed at The King’s Head Theatre, but garnered a negative response, with Barker stating it got “the worst notices of any play in the history of the theatre.”
Just over a decade after retiring, Barker was persuaded to make occasional appearances on TV again. In 1997 he appeared with Corbett at the Royal Command Performance, driving on stage in a motorcycle as the Two Fat Ladies, and in 1999 he was reunited with Corbett for Two Ronnies Night on BBC One, and the following year for A Tribute to the Two Ronnies. In 2002, director Richard Loncraine persuaded Barker to appear as Winston Churchill’s butler David Inches in the BBC-HBO drama The Gathering Storm and then cast him in the larger role of the General in the TV film My House in Umbria in 2003, alongside Maggie Smith (whom he had, early in their careers, advised to give up acting as he felt she would not be a success). In the same year, he briefly reprised his role as Norman Stanley Fletcher in the spoof documentary Life Beyond the Box.
Barker received several lifetime achievement awards. He won the Royal Television Society’s award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in 1975. Sir Alec Guinness presented him with a lifetime achievement honour at the inaugural British Comedy Awards in 1990, while he received another such honour at the BBC Centenary Programme in 1996. In 2004 he was given a special BAFTA lifetime achievement award at Ronnie Barker: A BAFTA Tribute, a televised celebratory tribute evening. In 2005, he and Corbett were part of the first 100 people given stars on London’s Avenue of Stars. Previous awards included the Variety Club of Great Britain Award in 1969, 1974 and 1980, the Radio Industry Club Award in 1973, 1974, 1977 and 1981.
Following the success of Ronnie Barker: A BAFTA Tribute, Barker wanted to return the The Two Ronnies to television and the BBC commissioned The Two Ronnies Sketchbook, a clip show of their best sketches along with newly recorded introductions. These were recorded in one day due to Barker’s declining health and aired in 2005. The project, when announced, met with “some derision among the professional critics”, but after the first episode drew eight million viewers, they had to “eat their words”. The final special, and Barker’s final appearance on TV – The Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook – was recorded in July 2005 as a result of Barker’s failing health and aired posthumously in December.
Barker met Joy Tubb in Cambridge while she was a stage manager for two plays he was in. They married nine months later in July 1957 and they had three children: two sons, Larry (b. 1959) and Adam (b. 1968) and one daughter, Charlotte (b. 1962), who became an actress. Larry was named after Barker’s idol Laurence Olivier. The family lived on Church Lane in Pinner for many years; they later sold the property and moved to a converted mill in Dean, Oxfordshire. According to Corbett, Barker was “first and foremost a family man.”
He received an OBE in 1978. Barker was an avid collector of antiques, books and posters and amassed a collection of over 53,000 postcards; he produced several compilation books of them including Ronnie Barker’s Book of Bathing Beauties, A Pennyworth of Art and Sauce. Barker rarely appeared in public, and when he did it was almost always in character. He once said “I’ve always known I haven’t a personality of my own, I have to be someone else to be happy. That’s why I became an actor, I suppose.”
Barker was a heavy smoker until 1972 when he gave up the habit after having a pre-cancerous growth removed from his throat; he took to drinking wine and using placebo cigarettes to maintain his concentration and help him sleep. He underwent a heart bypass in 1996 and survived a pulmonary embolism the following year. Opting not to have heart valve replacement surgery, Barker’s health rapidly declined after the recording of The Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook and he died of heart failure at the Katherine House hospice in Adderbury, Oxfordshire (where he had been for two days) on 3 October 2005, aged 76, with Joy by his side. News of his death made top billing on the television news headlines. The Sun featured a front page of just the headline “It’s Goodnight From Him” and an image of Barker’s glasses.
Following his death the “Writer of the Year Award” at the British Comedy Awards was renamed in his honour. He was voted as the 16th greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders in a 2005 poll to find The Comedian’s Comedian. The BBC described him as “one of the leading figures of British television comedy”, and “much loved and admired”. The Independent called him “a master of television sitcom”. The Guardian said he was “much loved…Both as an actor and a writer he was recognised as a master of pyrotechnic puns, surreal behaviour in public and private places and crackling cross-chat.” They concluded “it says much about the decline of the British television industry that Ronnie Barker, one of its most creative comic talents, should have turned his back on it long before he died at the age of 76.” In Barker’s eulogy, the Reverend Robert Wright stated he was “undoubtedly one of the very greatest television comedy actors” and “as a performer, he made comedy look effortlessly funny.” A bronze statue of Barker, in character as Norman Stanley Fletcher, sculpted by Martin Jennings, was unveiled in a public area at the entrance of the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre in September 2010 by his widow Joy, David Jason and Ronnie Corbett. Joy Barker died in January 2011, aged 78.
Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Smith also spent time in Germantown in Northwest Philadelphia. His mother, Caroline (née Bright), was a school administrator who worked for the Philadelphia school board, and his father, Willard Christopher Smith, Sr., was a refrigeration engineer. He was raised Baptist. His parents separated when he was 13, and did not actually divorce until Smith was around 30. Smith credits his father’s dedication when discussing his own involvement in the lives of his three children: “I look at my father and how he was able to keep four kids fed and clothed and still managed to find time to spend with us.” Smith married Sheree Zampino in 1992. They had a son, Willard Christopher Smith III, also known as “Trey”, but divorced in 1995. Trey appeared in his father’s music video for the 1998 single “Just the Two of Us”. Smith married actress Jada Pinkett in 1997 and practice an open marriage. Together they have had two children: Jaden Christopher Syre (born 1998), his co-star in The Pursuit of Happyness, and Willow Camille Reign (born 2000), who appeared as his daughter in I Am Legend. Along with his brother, Harry Smith, he owns Treyball Development Inc., a Beverly Hills-based company named after his first son. Smith and his family reside on Star Island in Miami Beach, Florida and in Los Angeles, Stockholm, Sweden and Philadelphia.
Smith started as the MC of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, with his childhood friend Jeffrey “DJ Jazzy Jeff” Townes as turntablist and producer as well as Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes) as the human beat box. The trio was known for performing humorous, radio-friendly songs, most notably “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Summertime”. They gained critical acclaim and won the first Grammy awarded in the Rap category (1988). He had a line in “Voices That Care”, a 1991 Gulf War song by a celebrity group. Smith spent money freely during his early career and underpaid his income taxes. The Internal Revenue Service eventually assessed a $2.8 million tax debt against Smith, took many of his possessions, and garnished his income. Smith was nearly bankrupt in 1990 when the NBC television network signed him to a contract and built a sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, around him. The show was successful and began his acting career. Smith set for himself the goal of becoming “the biggest movie star in the world,” studying box office successes’ common characteristics.
In 1996, Smith starred as part of an ensemble cast in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day. The film was a massive blockbuster, becoming the second highest grossing film in history at the time and establishing Smith as a prime box office draw. In 1998, Smith starred with Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State. Smith turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix in favour of Wild Wild West. Despite the disappointment of Wild Wild West, Smith has said that he harbours no regrets about his decision, asserting that Keanu Reeves’s performance as Neo was superior to what he himself (Smith) would have achieved.
In 2005, Smith was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for attending a record breaking three premieres in a 24-hour time span. He has planned to star in a feature film remake of the television series It Takes a Thief. On December 10, 2007, Smith was recognized at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Smith left an imprint of his hands and feet outside the world renowned theatre in front of many fans. Later that month, Smith starred in the film I Am Legend, released December 14, 2007. Despite marginally positive reviews, its opening was the largest ever for a film released in the United States during December. Smith himself has said that he considers the film to be “aggressively unique”. A reviewer said that the film’s commercial success “cemented [Smith’s] standing as the number one box office draw in Hollywood.” On December 1, 2008, TV Guide reported that Smith has been selected as one of America’s top ten most fascinating people of 2008 for a Barbara Walters ABC special that aired on December 4, 2008.
President Barack Obama has stated that if a film were to ever be made about his life, he would have Smith play his part, because “he has the ears”. Obama stated that the two have discussed a possibility of a film based on the 2008 election, but this may not happen until the end of the Obama presidency. He is currently filming Men in Black III for a 2012 release playing Agent J one of his more popular earlier roles, making this his first major starring role in four years. On August 19, 2011, it was announced that Smith had returned to the studio with producer La Mar Edwards to make a new album. Edwards has worked with artists such as T.I., Chris Brown, and Game.
Smith was consistently listed in Fortune Magazine’s “Richest 40” list of the forty wealthiest Americans under the age of 40. He donated $4,600 to the presidential campaign of Democrat Barack Obama. December 11, 2009, Smith and his wife hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, when Obama had won the prize.
Smith has said he has studied multiple religions, including Scientology, and he has said many complimentary things about Scientology and other faiths. Despite his praise of Scientology, Smith said “I just think a lot of the ideas in Scientology are brilliant and revolutionary and non-religious” and “Ninety-eight percent of the principles in Scientology are identical to the principles of the Bible…. I don’t think that because the word someone uses for spirit is ‘thetan’ that the definition becomes any different.” He has denied having joined the Church of Scientology, saying “I am a Christian. I am a student of all religions, and I respect all people and all paths.” Smith gave $1.3 million to charities in 2007, of which $450,000 went to two Christian ministries, and $122,500 went to three Scientology organizations; the remaining beneficiaries included “a Los Angeles mosque, other Christian-based schools and churches, and the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Centre in Israel”. Smith and his wife have also founded a private elementary school in Calabasas, California, the New Village Leadership Academy, which has attracted controversy and speculation over its use of Study Technology, a teaching methodology developed by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.
Events that happened this week in history:-
24th Sept – 1664 – The Dutch Republic surrenders New Amsterdam to England. 1852 – The first airship powered by (a steam) engine, created by Henri Giffard, travels 17 miles (27 km) from Paris to Trappes. 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument. 1946 – Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong. 1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded. 1957 – Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe, is opened in Barcelona. 1973 – Guinea-Bissau declares its independence from Portugal. 1979 – Compu-Serve launches the first consumer internet service, which features the first public electronic mail service. 1991 – Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), American children’s writer, died. 2007 – The Indian Cricket Team wins the Twenty20 World Cup in the final against Pakistan. 2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world’s highest residence above ground-level.
25th Sept – 1849 – Johann Strauss, Senior, Austrian composer died. 1890 – The U.S. Congress establishes Sequoia National Park. 1911 – Ground is broken for Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. 1956 – TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated. 1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the 102nd person sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and the first woman to hold the office. 1983 – Maze Prison escape: 38 republican prisoners, armed with 6 handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of the Maze prison. It is the largest prison escape since WWII and in British history. 1991 – Klaus Barbie, Berman Nazi war criminal died. 2008 – China launches the spacecraft Shenzhou 7.
26th Sept – 1580 – Sir Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth. 1687 – The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange’s invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution. 1777 – British troops occupy Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the American Revolution. 1820 – Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson proved tomatoes weren’t poisonous by eating several on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey. 1902 – Levi Strauss, American clothing manufacturer died. 1907 – New Zealand and Newfoundland each become dominions within the British Empire. 1934 – Steamship RMS Queen Mary is launched. 1960 – Fidel Castro announces Cuba’s support for the U.S.S.R. 1973 – Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time. 1984 – The United Kingdom agrees to the handover of Hong Kong. 2003 – Robert Palmer, English singer died. 2008 – Paul Newman, American actor. 2008 – Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel. 2010 – Gloria Stuart, American actress died.
27th Sept – 1066 – William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the Somme River, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. 1590 – Pope Urban VII dies 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history. 1777 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the capital of the United States, for one day. 1821 – Mexico gains its independence from Spain. 1825 – The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens, and begins operation of the world’s first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains. 1908 – The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan. 1921 – Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer died. 1938 – Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth launched in Glasgow. 1956 – USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt becomes the first man to exceed Mach 3 while flying the Bell X-2. Shortly thereafter, the craft goes out of control and Captain Apt is killed. 1960 – Sylvia Pankhurst, English suffragette died. 1964 – The Warren Commission releases its report, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President John F. Kennedy. 1968 – The stage musical Hair opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where it played 1,998 performances until its closure was forced by the roof collapsing in July 1973. 1979 – Dame Gracie Fields, British comedian died. 2003 – Smart 1 satellite is launched. 2003 – Donald O’Connor, American actor died.
28th Sept – 1066 – William the Bastard (as he was known at the time) invades England beginning the Norman Conquest. 1448 – Christian I is crowned king of Denmark. 1791 – France becomes the first European country to emancipate its Jewish population. 1867 – The United States takes control of Midway Island. 1895 – Louis Pasteur, French scientist died. 1928 – The U.K. Parliament passes the Dangerous Drugs Act outlawing cannabis. 1928 – Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin. 1935 – William Kennedy Dickson, Scottish inventor died. 1951 – CBS makes the first colour televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than month later. 1953 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer died. 1956 – William Edward Boeing, American aviation manufacturer died. 1964 – Harpo Marx, American comedian and actor died. 1971 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 banning the medicinal use of cannabis. 1978 – Pope John Paul I died. 1989 – Ferdinand Marcos, Filipino politician died. 1991 – Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter died. 1994 – Harry Saltzman, American film producer died. 2008 – Space X launches the first ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.
29th Sept – 1642 – William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby died. 1789 – The 1st United States Congress adjourns. 1829 – The Metropolitan Police of London, later also known as the Met, is founded. 1885 – The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England. 1902 – Émile Zola, French writer died. 1911 – Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire. 1913 – Rudolf Diesel, Inventor of Diesel Engine died. 1916 – John D. Rockefeller becomes the first billionaire. 1954 – The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed. 1962 – Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite, is launched. 1966 – The Chevrolet Camaro, originally named Panther, is introduced. 1981 – Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager died. 1987 – Henry Ford II, president of Ford Motor Company died. 1988 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist died. 1988 –NASA launches STS-26 , the return to flight mission Discovery, after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. 1989 – August “Gussie” Anheuser Busch, Jr., American brewing magnate died. 1996 – Leslie Crowther, British comedian died. 2006 – US Representative Mark Foley resigns after allegations of inappropriate emails. 2007 – Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station, is demolished in a controlled explosion. 2007 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress died. 2010 – Tony Curtis, American Actor died.
30th Sept – 1399 – Henry IV is proclaimed King of England. 1791 – The Magic Flute, the last opera composed by Mozart, receives its premiere performance at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria. 1860 – Britain’s first tram service begins in Birkenhead, Merseyside. 1895 – Madagascar becomes a French protectorate. 1901 – Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner. 1927 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season. 1947 – The World Series, featuring the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, is televised for the first time. 1954 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Nautilus is commissioned as the world’s first nuclear reactor powered vessel. 1955 – James Dean, American actor died. 1962 – James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying segregation. 1965 – The Lockheed L-100, the civilian version of the C-130 Hercules, is introduced. 1967 – BBC Radio 1 is launched and Tony Blackburn presents its first show; the BBC’s other national radio stations also adopt numeric names. 1968 – The Boeing 747 is rolled out and shown to the public for the first time at the Boeing Everett Factory. 1772 – James Brindley, English engineer died. 1975 – The Hughes (later McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight. 1980 – Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation. 1985 – Charles Richter, American seismologist died. 1994 – Aldwych tube station (originally Strand Station) of the London Underground closes after eighty-eight years of service. 2004 – The first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat are taken 600 miles south of Tokyo.
Other famous birthdays being celebrated and remembered this week are:-
24th Sept – Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, English soldier. Sir Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer. Franklin Clarence Mars, Founder of Mars, Incorporated. F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist. Anthony Newley, British actor and singer. Jim Henson, American puppeteer. Linda McCartney, American singer and photographer. Gerry Marsden, English singer with Gerry & The Pacemakers. Phil Hartman, Canadian actor. Ally McCoist, Scottish footballer & manager.
25th Sept – Ronnie Barker, British comedian and actor. Brian Murphy, British actor. Michael Douglas, American actor and producer. Felicity Kendal, British actress. Cecil Womack, American musician. Mark Hamill, American actor. Christopher Reeve, American actor. Zucchero, Italian musician. Heather Locklear, American actress and model. Jason Flemyng, English actor. Will Smith, American actor and rapper. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress. Jessie Wallace, English actress. Declan Donnelly, British actor, television presenter and musician. Jodie Kidd, English model.
26th Sept – Sir Barnes Wallis, English scientist and inventor. T. S. Eliot, American-born British writer and poet, Nobel laureate. George Raft, American actor. George Gershwin, American composer. Anthony Blunt, English art historian and Soviet spy. Julie London, American singer and actress. Winnie Mandela, South African anti-apartheid activist. Ricky Tomlinson, English actor. Ian Chappell, Australian cricketer and broadcaster. Anne Robinson, English television host. Bryan Ferry, English singer with Roxy Music. Lynn Anderson, American country music singer. Olivia Newton-John, English-born Australian singer and actress. Linda Hamilton, American actress. Lysette Anthony, English actress. James Caviezel, American actor. Shawn Stockman, American singer with Boyz II Men. Christina Milian, American actress and singer. Serena Williams, American tennis player.
27th Sept – Samuel Adams, American revolutionary leader. Alvin Stardust, English singer. Robin Nedwell, English comedy actor. Barbara Dickson, Scottish singer. Denis Lawson, Scottish actor. Meat Loaf, American singer. Michele Dotrice, English actress. Duncan Fletcher, Rhodesian-born Zimbabwean cricketer and coach. Greg Ham, Australian musician and songwriter with Men at Work. Shaun Cassidy, American singer. Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress. Lil Wayne, American rapper.
28th Sept – Thomas Crapper, English inventor. Ed Sullivan, American television show host. Brigitte Bardot, French actress. Ronald Lacey, British actor. Ben E. King, American r&b singer. Rudolph Walker, Trinidadian-born British actor. Helen Shapiro, English singer. Jennifer Rush, American pop singer. Dita Von Teese, American burlesque artist.
29th Sept – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author. Caravaggio, Italian artist. Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, British general and statesman. Horatio Nelson, British admiral. Elizabeth Gaskell, British novelist. Miguel Alemán Valdés, President of Mexico. Gene Autry, American actor, singer, and businessman. Trevor Howard, English actor. Colin Dexter, British author of Inspector Morse novels. Jerry Lee Lewis, American musician. Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy. Ian McShane, British actor. Ian Wallace, English rock drummer. Ken Weatherwax, American actor from The Addams Family (TV series). Sebastian Coe, British athlete. Chris Broad, English cricketer and match umpire. Luke Goss, English actor and singer with Bros. Matt Goss, English singer with Bros. Emily Lloyd, British actress. Robert Webb, British actor, comedian, and writer.
30th Sept – Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis, American labour activist. William Wrigley, Jr., American industrialist. Hans Geiger, German physicist. Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress. Angie Dickinson, American actress. Barbara Knox, English actress. Johnny Mathis, American singer. Frankie Lymon, American singer. Ian Ogilvy, British Actor. Marc Bolan, English musician with T. Rex. Jack Wild, British actor. Robby Takac, American singer and bassist with Goo Goo Dolls. Omid Djalili, British stand-up comedian and actor. Cecelia Ahern, Irish author.
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