Happy Birthday Will Smith: 5 of the Suicide Squad actor's most loved films

Will Smith is a different kind of superstar. He is black. There were men before him, there will be men after him. But no one might be able to get near the fan-frenzy that Will Smith generated as a true-blue Hollywood star. He was the first. There was Denzel Washington before him, Morgan Freeman, Don Cheadle, but no one really found the love and appreciation of movie fans all over the world like Will Smith did.

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Even as recently he is tagged as one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, shouldering the weight of a Suicide Squad, we take a look at his career's five most loved films:

1) Independence Day (1996): Roland Emmerich's disaster epic was one of the first of its kind. Aliens came down upon America and it was a fighter-pilot Will Smith holding a Cuban cigar who in the words of Hollywood 'kicks their ass'. The movie was the summer blockbuster of 2016, and established Smith as a certified Hollywood A-lister. He had just moved on from his hit TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and he needed a money-spinner like Independence Day to get the popularity that no black Hollywood star had got. The film was well-received who said the escapist element is celebrated to such an extent that it becomes enjoyable. Who can forget that last scene of Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith walking across the Nevada desert after successfully blowing up the mother ship.

2) Ali (2001): The film that established Will Smith as one of the best actors in the business, let alone a Hollywood star. This biopic on arguably the world's greatest boxer of all time, director Michael Mann chose Smith to play the might Muhammad Ali. Ali remains Smith's one of the best reviewed performances, where he went all out to look like the great boxer, talk like him along with a tremendous supporting act by veteran Jon Voight. Will Smith won his first nomination for Best Actor in a Lead Role for this film where he lost to Denzel Washington for Antoine Fuqua's Training Day.

3) Hitch (2005): Will Smith turned on the charm with this one and made a name for himself among the lovelorn by playing a date doctor Alex Hitchins, who helps the dorks and the nerds win over their lady-love by offering advice like a consultant. Featuring an amazing performance by Kevin James, Will Smith hits all the right notes making his character likeable, cool and at the same time making a case for those who think their crushes are way out of their league. Eva Mendes is the perfect match for Will Smith, as he fights tooth and nail for her in spite of the hate she harbours for him after finding out about his 'consulting'.

4) The Pursuit of Happyness (2006): Touted by many as Will Smith's attempt to make an Oscar-bait. A biopic? Check. Physical transformation? Check. Rags-to-riches story? Check. And yet there's something the way Will Smith completely invests himself in the role of Chris Gardener. A real life figure who went from selling bone density scanners to becoming a Wall Street broker as he goes about a 3-month internship, spending days with no food, of being homeless and yet coming out on top. Director Gabriele Muccino tugs at your heart strings more than once, and you have to say he's more or less successful. This role ensured Will Smith's second nomination for Best Actor in a Lead Role at the Oscars. However, he lost to the explosive dynamite performance of Forrest Whitaker's portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

5) Concussion (2015): Will Smith's passion project where he plays the role of a Nigerian-American forensic pathologist who uncovers the recurring degenerative disorders being observed in professional football atheletes. He tries to blow the cover on the issue as the the NFL try to keep it under wraps and supress his research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Will Smith's performance of the real life gentleman Dr Bennett Omalu was well recieved, and he was even appreciated for the consistent Nigerian accent he keeps while saying all his dialogues in English. Concussion was a commercial failure, but the audience hailed the timeliness of the film.