1. "Ali" (2001) -- Virtually everyone knows what Muhammad Ali looks and sounds like, or did in his pugilistic prime. Smith added muscle and attitude and transformed himself, earning his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

2. "The Pursuit of Happyness" (2006) -- Smith plays a real-life man named Chris Gardner in a movie as heartbreaking as it is inspiring. He and his 5-year-old son (played by Will's actual boy, Jaden) end up penniless and homeless, sleeping on the floor of a locked men's room at a subway station at their lowest point.

3. "I Am Legend" (2007) -- Military virologist Robert Neville is the real Mister Lonely. The year is 2012 and he may be the last man on Earth in this adaptation of Richard Matheson's short 1954 novel. With no one to act against for much of the movie, Smith faces his toughest challenge -- and more than meets it.

4. "Hitch" (2005) -- Smith tackled the genre of romantic comedy and mastered it on his first try in this amusing tale of a Date Doctor who insists, "Any man has a chance to sweep any woman off her feet." He advises Kevin James, woos Eva Mendes and adds another notch to his blockbuster belt.

5. "Six Degrees of Separation" (1993) -- This proved Smith had the potential to break out of the rap/comedy box. Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland are upper-crust New Yorkers who open their door to a young man -- Smith -- who's been stabbed in Central Park, only to hear he's Sidney Poitier's son. Or claims to be.

-- Barbara Vancheri,
Post-Gazette movie editor