J.W. Smith

J.W. Smith

J.W. Smith is a producer and actor with more than 40 years of entertainment experience in motion pictures and television. J.W. grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where he began his acting career at The Karamu House Community Theater. In the early 1970s, J.W. moved to New York City where he became a student in Uta Hagen's acting class at HB Studio and at The Henry Street Playhouse. During his stint in New York City, J.W. met and became close friends with Morgan Freeman and Bill Duke. More than four decades later, J.W. remains close friends with both Morgan and Bill, often collaborating on scripts and potential projects.

J.W. spent several successful years performing on Broadway and Off Broadway in plays including, "We Interrupt This Program," Public Theater's production of "On the Goddam Lock-in," and "So Nice, They Named It Twice." In addition to acting, J.W. produced shows in and around New York City for the Amas Repertory Theater Company.

In the early 1980s, J.W. moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career in film and television where he immediately landed his first job in television on "Palmerstown, U.S.A." He was selected to be a part of Paramount Pictures Associate Producers Training Program, working on several ground-breaking series for television including, "The Best of The West," "Taxi," and "Cheers." J.W. has also appeared in numerous television shows including, "L.A. Law," "Cagney and Lacey," "Reno 911," "The X-Files," and "Hill Street Blues."

Showing his range and depth of talent, J.W. has appeared in many popular feature films including, "Red Heat" (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger), "Johnny Handsome" (starring Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, and Morgan Freeman), "Undisputed" (starring Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames), "Beetlejuice" (starring Michael Keaton), "Hoodlum" (starring Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth, and directed by Bill Duke), "The Warriors" (cult classic directed by Walter Hill), to name a few.

J.W. is President of 3000 Realms Entertainment, a production company he co-founded with friend and business partner, Bryan Behuniak. J.W.'s project in development with 3000 Realms Entertainment is "Dead Wrong," executive produced by Morgan Freeman, with producers Bryan Behuniak, James Dyer, and writer Matt Benjamin.

Movies for J.W. Smith...

Title: Listen Up!
Character: Construction Worker #2
Released: September 20, 2004
Type: TV
Listen Up! is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from September 20, 2004 until April 25, 2005. The sitcom was based loosely on the life and exploits of the popular sportswriter and sports-media personality Tony Kornheiser. Its principal executive producer was Jason Alexander, who was also the lead actor. Despite decent-to-good ratings, the show was canceled by CBS on May 18, 2005; "rising production costs" was the major reason officially given for the cancellation.
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Undisputed
Title: Undisputed
Character: Mess Guard
Released: July 17, 2002
Type: Movie
Monroe Hutchens is the heavyweight champion of Sweetwater, a maximum security prison. He was convicted to a life sentence due to a passionate crime. Iceman Chambers is the heavyweight champion, who lost his title due to a rape conviction to ten years in Sweetwater. WHen these two giants collide in the same prison, they fight against each other disputing who is the real champion.
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Spanish Judges
Title: Spanish Judges
Character: Red
Released: October 16, 2000
Type: Movie
A con-artist hires two low-lifes to cover him during a deal, ending with three criminals, two dueling pistols, and one night they'll never forget
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Hoodlum
Title: Hoodlum
Character: Calvin
Released: August 27, 1997
Type: Movie
In 1934, the second most lucrative business in New York City was running 'the numbers'. When Madam Queen—the powerful woman who runs the scam in Harlem—is arrested, Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson takes over the business and must resist an invasion from a merciless mobster.
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Title: Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
Character: Doorman / Factory Worker (voice)
Released: March 12, 1995
Type: TV
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American anthology animated television series.
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Title: The X-Files
Character: Steve
Released: September 10, 1993
Type: TV
The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries that debunk Mulder's work and thus return him to mainstream cases.
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Title: Martin
Released: August 27, 1992
Type: TV
Sassy sitcom centering on radio and television personality Martin Payne. Series focuses on his romantic relationship with girlfriend Gina, her best friend Pam and escapades with best friends Tommy and Cole.
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Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight
Title: Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight
Character: Sporty Black
Released: January 5, 1992
Type: Movie
Don Wilson returns to the screen as a man unjustly accused of a brutal crime. Within the prison he must fight for survival, freedom and justice.
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False Identity
Title: False Identity
Character: Willi
Released: June 8, 1990
Type: Movie
When Rachel, a radio personality, discovers a Purple Heart at a garage sale she decides to find out its history. She finds that the medal belonged to a man named Harlan Erickson, a long-lost brother of the town's leading citizen.
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Johnny Handsome
Title: Johnny Handsome
Character: Larry
Released: September 12, 1989
Type: Movie
A career criminal who has been deformed since birth is given a new face by a kindly doctor and paroled from prison. It appears that he has gone straight, but he is really planning his revenge on the man who killed his mentor and sent him to prison.
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L.A. Takedown
Title: L.A. Takedown
Character: Witness Talking to Hanna
Released: August 27, 1989
Type: Movie
Michael Mann's gutsy telefilm tells the tale of two skilled professionals--one a cop, the other a criminal--who aren't as different as they think. Vincent Hanna is an intense cop on the trail of ruthless armed robber Patrick McLaren. After a botched heist, the two men confront each via a full scale battle on the seedy streets of Los Angeles.
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Title: Tales from the Crypt
Character: Ledbetter
Released: June 10, 1989
Type: TV
Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day. So shamble up to the bar and pick your poison. Will it be an insane Santa on a personal slay ride? Honeymooners out to fulfill the "til death do we part" vow ASAP?
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K-9
Title: K-9
Character: Pimp
Released: April 28, 1989
Type: Movie
The extravagant cop Michael Dooley needs some help to fight a drug dealer who has tried to kill him. A "friend" gives him a dog named Jerry Lee (Officer Lewis), who has been trained to smell drugs. With his help, Dooley sets out to put his enemy behind the bars, but Jerry Lee has a personality of his own and works only when he wants to. On the other hand, the dog is quite good at destroying Dooley's car, house and sex-life...
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Title: Quantum Leap
Character: Eddie Davies
Released: March 26, 1989
Type: TV
Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.
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Red Heat
Title: Red Heat
Character: Salim
Released: June 17, 1988
Type: Movie
A tough Russian policeman is forced to partner up with a cocky Chicago police detective when he is sent to Chicago to apprehend a Georgian drug lord who killed his partner and fled the country.
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Outrageous Fortune
Title: Outrageous Fortune
Character: Dealer #1
Released: January 30, 1987
Type: Movie
Refined actress Lauren Ames finally has a chance to study with the great theatre professor Stanislav Korzenowski. Sandy Brozinsky, a brash, loud actress, decides through happenstance to also study with Korzenowski. The two women end up dating the same man (who turns out to be a double agent) and follow him across the country to force him to choose between them.
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Let's Get Harry
Title: Let's Get Harry
Character: Mercenary
Released: October 31, 1986
Type: Movie
Harry Burck has been kidnapped by South American terrorists, and when the US Government refuses to intervene, Harry's friends decide to take matters into their own hands!
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Crossroads
Title: Crossroads
Released: March 14, 1986
Type: Movie
A wanna-be blues guitar virtuoso seeks a long-lost song by legendary musician, Robert Johnson.
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Title: The Atlanta Child Murders
Character: Nathaniel Carter
Released: February 10, 1985
Type: TV
The Atlanta Child Murders is a TV miniseries that aired on February 10 and 12, 1985 on CBS. Inspired by true events, the miniseries examines the so-called "Atlanta child murders" of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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Attack on Fear
Title: Attack on Fear
Character: Synanon Man
Released: October 10, 1984
Type: Movie
Married journalists who run a small town newspaper expose corruption and cultism at a once respected rehab center.
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Title: Airwolf
Character: Roach
Released: January 22, 1984
Type: TV
As part of a deal with an intelligence agency to look for his missing brother, a renegade pilot goes on missions with an advanced battle helicopter.
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Imps*
Title: Imps*
Character: Receiver
Released: December 12, 1983
Type: Movie
Once Upon a Time in a mythical place called Hollywood, a long, long, long time ago in a galaxy not so very far away, a witty group of actors with 38 EMMY Nominations, 3 Academy Award nominations, and 8 Golden Globe nominations, along with 4 Playmates and a Penthouse Pet, came together in a burst of comic frenzy and created imps*.
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Deal of the Century
Title: Deal of the Century
Character: Will
Released: November 4, 1983
Type: Movie
Arms dealers from several companies vie to sell the most expensive and highest tech weapons to a South American dictator. There are complications; understanding the exact nature of how 'gifts' are used to grease the wheels of a sale, a religious conversion from one of the salesman and a romance that begins to grow between two competitors.
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The Warriors
Title: The Warriors
Character: Turnbull A.C.
Released: February 1, 1979
Type: Movie
Prominent gang leader Cyrus calls a meeting of New York's gangs to set aside their turf wars and take over the city. At the meeting, a rival leader kills Cyrus, but a Coney Island gang called the Warriors is wrongly blamed for Cyrus' death. Before you know it, the cops and every gangbanger in town is hot on the Warriors' trail.