Will Smith (Home and Away)

Infobox soap character
name = Will Smith
series = Home and Away
portrayer = Zac Drayson
first = Episode 2320
13th February 1998
last =
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nickname =
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gender = Male
born = 1981
death =
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occupation = Coxswain
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residence = Queensland
parents = Ken Smith(father, deceased)
Eve Smith(mother)
siblings = Hayley Smith(sister)
Nick Smith(brother)
spouse = Gypsy Nash
romances =
children = Lily Smith(daughter)
Rachel McGregor(adoptive daughter)
grandchildren =
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nieces/nephews = Noah Lawson II(nephew)
cousins =
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color = Television colour|Home and Away
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Will Smith was a fictional character in the Australian soap opera "Home and Away".He was portrayed by Zac Drayson and was a regular on the show from 1998 to 2002.He continued to make frequent guest appearances until 2005.

Character history

Will, like many Summer Bay teenagers, came from a broken home-his father Ken was an alcoholic, his mother Eve was violent and ended up in a mental home.After running away from a foster home and ending up on the streets, Will met up with Damian Roberts and learned that his mother Irene was in the habit of taking in children.He then headed to Summer Bay and turned up on Irene's doorstep, claiming Damian had said he could stay.

Will wanted to reunite his family, specifically his younger siblings Hayley and Nick.To this end, he began trying to clear Irene's house, encouraging Chloe Richards to move in with her boyfriend James Fraser and trying to drive a rift between Irene and Joey Rainbow by telling them both that the other had been badmouthing them.In fact, Hayley and Nick were quite happy in foster care.Will apologised for his actions and agreed to stay on at Irene's.

He wasn't entirely happy that a condition of his stay was that he go back to school.He quickly became good friends with his classmate Sam Marshall;other close friends included Mitch McColl, Edward Dunglass and, much later, Noah Lawson.He also quickly noticed Gypsy Nash, although their relationship was hampered by the fact that her father, Joel, was the new PE teacher and clashed with Will on his first day.Joel soon began to warm to Will and encouraged him to try out for the school javelin team. Annoyed at the idea of her boyfriend and her father being friends, Gypsy told Will that Joel was only interested in him because he could win him trophies, so Will deliberately got himself disqualified from a competition.He and Joel eventually ironed out their differences, especially when Joel helped clear him when he was falsely accused of robbing a stallholder, and struck up something of a mentor-pupil relationship.Years later, when Joel was injured in a landslide, Will held an all-night vigil at his bedside.

Will's relationship with Gypsy proved somewhat scatty, with them both being hauled over the coals when they were locked in the school overnight after sneaking away at a concert.When he seemed dismissive after their first attempt at sleeping together, she was upset and furious to see him hanging around with a new girl-who turned out to be Hayley, his sister, who had tired of her foster parents and decided to come and live with him.

Will was around when Joey was diagnosed with schizophrenia and helped cope with the fallout.When Irene had to go away, Will, Hayley and Joey all ended up staying with Ailsa Stewart.Around this time, Nick made his first visit to the Bay.Will failed to prevent him being beaten up by some drug dealers he owed money to but did help persuade his foster parents not to give up on him.When Ailsa's son Duncan framed Joey for taking a knife and she asked him to leave, Will insisted on going with him, although he wasn't so convinced about Joey's state of mind to let Hayley come with them, until she realised what Duncan had done.

While out bush walking, Will, Gypsy, Hayley and Sam ended up being taken hostage by Murray, a drifter who had recently robbed the Diner. Will turned down a chance to escape when it meant leaving Gypsy behind and convinced Murray to give himself up.Gypsy was impressed by his behaviour, and his admission he loved her, but before they could do anything he left to visit Nick in the city.By the time he came back, Gypsy was seeing her older lecturer, Robert Perez.Will and Gypsy's brother Tom were suspicious of Robert and uncovered evidence that he was actually criminal David DiAngelo, after revenge on Joel, just too late to stop him abducting Gypsy.After she was rescued, Will helped her deal with her experiences and, on discovering she had a drink problem, proved mature enough to let her mother Natalie know about it.

Soon after, Will found himself attracted to Peta Janossi, a friends of Hayley's.The pair started dating and Will helped cover for her upon learning her grandmother had died and she and her brother were living alone, until Irene found out and arranged for Peta to stay with Joel and Natalie.However, Will was clearly still hung up on Gypsy;when most of the Bay's teens went joyriding in a car belonging to Irene's boyfriend Anthony Doyle, he covered for her but not the others.In the end, he and Peta broke up and he got back together with Gypsy.

Will was annoyed to find Hayley had a romanticised version of their drunk father and even more so when Ken turned up in person.He was concerned when Ken started seeing Irene and, when he started drinking again, Will and Hayley forced him to leave until he was better.He returned some months later, having sobered up, and even succeeded where Will had failed in bringing Nick to live with them. Will eventually accepted Ken had changed and the pair struck up a close relationship.

When he learned Gypsy had been cheating on him with rich kid Charlie Nicholas, Will was furious and vandalised the school field with a motorbike.He ended up being given community service for the crime and while serving his sentence met a girl named Sandy, who turned out to be Ayisha King, a neglected rich girl who was squatting in her parents' summer house.She returned some months later, heavily pregnant and expecting Will to be a father to the baby.He let her know he only saw her as a friend and she ended up leaving with Sam instead.

Will next set his sights on Dani Sutherland, although their relationship was hampered when Tara Mills, a girl from school who was being bullied by her fitness mad father, became convinced Will was her boyfriend after he stepped in to help her.Meanwhile, Ken had got engaged to Irene and asked Will to be his best man.Will started helping Ken out at his garage but left him alone while he talked to Dani.He returned to find a jack had given way and Ken had been crushed under the car.Ken died in his arms and he was distressed to learn he had caused(or, more likely, hastened)his death by taking the car off him.

Will had promised Ken he would look after the family so chose to leave school and get a job as Alf Stewart's deck hand.He also began trying to be a father figure to Hayley and Nick, coming down hard on them until Irene persuaded him to cut it out. His relationship with Dani hit a rough patch when she became jealous of him spending time with Gypsy.When they split, he and Gypsy slept together.He ended up going back to Dani and supported her when she was raped by Kane Phillips, although he was forced to admit in court that Dani had said it wasn't Kane's fault, which may have contributed to his acquital.

When Will learned Gypsy was pregnant, he asked her if he was the father but she told him he wasn't.It took five months for him to realise she had lied, after finding she kept a photo of them together alongside her ultrasound picture.It couldn't have come at a worse time as Will was about to leave for London with his family to attend the launch of the book that Hayley had illustrated and Don Fisher had written.When he came back, it was all around town, partly because Dani had overheard an answerphone message he left Gypsy.He and Dani tried to make a go of things but eventually they split up for good.

Will and Gypsy found their feelings re-emerging and she ended up moving in with him.After he delivered their daughter Lily at the roadside, he proposed to her and she accepted.Soon after, Will briefly went missing during a storm.Having passed his cox's licence, he decided to take a job in Queensland, meaning they could be near Gypsy's family.With no time to get a marriage licence, Will and Gypsy had an unofficial wedding for their friends in Summer Bay before their departure, getting married for real in Queensland later.

Will continued to be a presence on the show, with both Nick and Jesse McGregor seen visiting him in Queensland.He returned to the Bay in 2003 when he and Gypsy were having problems and showed an interest in getting back with Dani, who by then was seeing Scott Hunter.He was horrified to find Kane back in the Bay and seemingly accepted by Irene and everyone else, an attitude he never lost.In the end, he decided to make a go of things with Gypsy.

He returned again in 2004 for Hayley's wedding to Noah, where he revealed to Jesse that his daughter Rachel, who had been staying with the Nashes, had asked him and Gypsy to adopt her.After mulling it over, Jesse agreed.He returned twice in 2005, once for Alf's 60th birthday and then again for Hayley's abortive wedding to Kim Hyde.