Everyone wants to achieve the American dream. This centuries-long trope has pushed people up during hard times and encouraged them to fight through their poverty to make their goals happen. People can change their lives... but only if they want to. The American dream isn't afforded to everyone, but Chris Gardner saw his opportunity and took it. His story inspired millions.
The Real Man Behind The Pursuit of Happyness
Will Smith's portrayal of Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness landed him Academy and Golden Globe nominations. So who was this inspiring man, and what is his story? Here's the true, tear-filled story behind Will Smith's memoir-inspired hit.
Chris' Family Stumbled Upon Milwaukee In Search For A Better Life
Chris' family wasn't looking for the American dream. In fact, they were looking for the Canadian dream 2013 but they never actually made it. Chris, his sisters, his mother and his two uncles left their home in Louisiana and headed up north towards Canada. The idea was to chase new business opportunities and find a better life in another country. Unfortunately, their car broke down and they never made it. The family settled in Milwaukee, the city in which their car bit the dust. They had no idea that their move would actually be for the worse.
Chris Gardner Had A Troubled Childhood
Chris Gardner didn't have an easy childhood. He was born in Louisiana on February 9, 1954, into a family that was riddled with abuse. As a child, it wasn't uncommon for him to watch as his stepfather, Freddie Triplett, physically abused his mother, Bettye Jean, and his sisters. Gardner lived in constant fear of Triplett and his fits of rage.
Thankfully, Gardner found immense, emotional support in his extended family. He looked up to his Uncle Henry, who became a source of comfort during this difficult time. Things took a turn for the worse when Gardner was just nine years old. His beloved uncle drowned in the Mississippi River.
He Didn't Really Know His Real Father
Gardner didn't have many positive male role models in his life. It was pretty much down to his uncle, whom he idolized, but sadly passed away too soon. Gardner never really had the opportunity to know his real father, and instead all he learned about raising children was from his horrifically abusive stepdad. Chris only saw his real father two times in his entire life. The first was when he was 28 years old after he tracked him down via telephone when his son had questions about his grandfather. The second was at his funeral.
Gardner's Most Traumatic Moment Was Childhood Sexual Assault
Sexual assault is one of the most traumatic things a human being can go through, much less a child. Despite all of the abuses Chris endured throughout his childhood, being raped was by far the most traumatic. When Gardner was a young boy, he was raped by a grown man. This stuck with him through his entire life, up until the moment he finally got payback. When Gardner was much older, he tracked down his rapist and hit him in the head with a cinderblock. It's unclear whether his rapist survived the devastating blow.
Gardner Was Placed In Foster Care Twice
Triplett wasn't the only criminal in the household. Gardner was placed in foster care not once, but twice, because of his mother's crimes. The first time Gardner went to foster care was because his mother was falsely imprisoned for welfare fraud. Triplett alleged she was making more money than actually reported in order to collect government benefits, but this wasn't actually the case. It was simply a perpetuation of his abuse. The second time, Gardner's mother grew tired of the abuse she consistently suffered at the hands of Triplett. She tried to burn Triplett alive in his home by setting the house on fire while he was inside of it. She was caught and charged for her crimes. Gardner and his sisters were sent to foster care again while she served her sentence.
Gardner's Stepfather Threatened Him With A Gun On Christmas
Triplett's fits of rage were erratic and random. They robbed Gardner of even the simplest, happiest childhood moments. One of the moments that stuck with Gardner throughout his life was a specific Christmas day where Triplett threatened him with a shotgun. Gardner was taking a bath while Triplett drunkenly burst into the bathroom with a shotgun. He pointed it at Gardner and told him he needed to leave the house immediately. Gardner left, naked and soaking wet in the middle of winter. He was freezing in the cold Milwaukee December and joined his mother outside, who had been kicked out of the house moments prior.
Gardner Was Deeply Inspired By His Mother
Despite the abuses he suffered, and the fact that his mom tried to burn his sister's father alive, Gardner was deeply inspired by his mom. Bettye Jean always taught her son to be self-reliant and to believe in himself. This inspiration is what helped him transform his life form an endless cycle of poverty to something better.
The biggest lesson Bettye taught her son was to be self-reliant. She told him "You can only depend on yourself. The cavalry ain't coming." This was a mantra that Gardner adopted throughout his life and it stayed with him into adulthood.
Gardner Joined The Army To Pay Homage To His Uncle
Gardner had a deep respect for his Uncle Henry, who told him stories about his adventures in the U.S. Navy before he passed away. As soon as Gardner finished secondary school, he joined the Army to follow in his uncle's footsteps. The army presented Gardner with opportunities he normally would not have had 2013 not with his socioeconomic background and no college education. The army coincidentally led him to his future career.
Gardner was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. During his four years of service as a medical corpsman, he became acquainted with Dr. Robert Ellis. Ellis would change Gardner's life.
Gardner Moved To San Francisco To Pursue A Research Job
In the film, Will Smith sells medical equipment. Chris Gardner actually had a much more prestigious job at first despite the fact that he was lacking a college education. Dr. Robert Ellis took a chance on Gardner by offering him an amazing research job after he was discharged from the army. Ellis was a young cardiac surgeon who was researching how Potassium preserved high-energy phosphates in heart muscles during open heart surgery. Though the work was specialized, the project was underfunded. Gardner received $13,000 a year for his efforts. That's around $56,000 in today's money which isn't a terrible salary, but paltry for something so specialized. Still, it was invaluable to Gardner, who became an expert on the work.
Gardner Rose Up The Ranks In his Field
Gardner was in no way qualified to become a physician. He had no real training besides the military, and he definitely didn't have the cash to attend medical school. That didn't stop him one bit, with his mother's mantra in his head. As soon as he started working on Ellis' clinical research at the University of California Medical Center and Veterans Administration Hospital, he rose up the ranks. By 1976, he was the sole person in charge of an entire laboratory and co-authored a number of articles with Dr. Ellis that were published in medical journals. Sadly, Gardner would give up his dreams in the early 1980s.
Linda Was Based On Gardner's First Wife Sherry Dryson
In 1977, Chris Gardner married his longtime friend Sherry Dryson in a park near her parents' home. Before they were married, Dryson and Gardner made their distance work. They constantly talked on the phone and she would visit him in San Francisco every opportunity she could get. After getting married, Dryson moved to San Francisco and worked as an insurance adjuster.
Sherry was different from Gardner. She came from a rather wealthy background and enjoyed fancy dinners and hanging out with people in the arts scene. This is where Gardner met the then-unknown actors Barry "Shabaka" Henley, Danny Glover and Samuel L. Jackson.
Gardner Didn't Think Medicine Was A Practical Career
Gardner was quickly rising up the ranks in the medical field 2013 and his life was seemingly full of wins. In 1977, he married his dream girl Sherry Dyson, an educational expert in math. Around this time, Gardner started realizing the road to success as a physician was a long, expensive one. He needed a decade of medical training and healthcare was just on the brink of changing with new technology. By the time Gardner left school and could practice medicine on his own, the entire profession would be completely different. He wasn't making a lot of money as a lab assistant, and decided to pursue something more lucrative. He told his wife he was leaving the medical field just five days before he turned 26.
Gardner's Marriage Suffered After His Decision To Leave Medicine
Gardner's relationship was seemingly perfect but became strained when he told Sherry he was abandoning a future in medicine. He started to feel detached from Sherry even though they lived together. They stopped trying to communicate and things got worse when they tried to have children. Sherry did eventually become pregnant but miscarried during the first trimester. At this time, Gardner started looking outside of his marriage for comfort. Though Gardner vowed to stay away from drugs and alcohol because of his terrible experience as a child with an alcoholic father, the dissolution of his marriage led him down a path even darker than he could have imagined.
Gardner Had His First Affair
Chris and Sherry's relationship was lacking all passion and communication, so Chris started looking elsewhere for affection. In his book, he described the woman he met as an expert at getting down. Whether she was or was not, this was the first time he cheated on his wife. The fling was short and afterward, the woman vandalized Sherry's car.
Chris moved on from the unnamed woman to Jackie Medina, a dental student who lived down the street. This is when Gardner started abusing drugs. According to some reports, Jackie and Chris holed up for 30 days in a cocaine-induced sexual marathon.
Gardner Ended It With Sherry After Jackie Fell Pregnant
Things were getting pretty serious with Jackie, just 30 days into the affair. He left San Francisco to meet Jackie's parents in New York City while he was still married to Sherry. When the couple came back from their trip, they discovered that Jackie had fallen pregnant with Chris Jr. In the film, this child was played by Will Smith's real-life son Jayden Smith. After finding out about Jackie's pregnancy, Gardner decided to leave Sherry and move in with his mistress. He admitted this decision was sex-fueled. He was married to her just three years, and it took them nine years to officially divorce.
At One Point, Gardner Dealt Drugs
Gardner may have used cocaine to increase his pleasuring during his marathon of lovemaking with Jackie, but what the film never covers is the fact that Gardner fell down a dark path when he met Jackie. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Chris tried PCP. The drug made him go absolutely crazy and he had to talk himself out of thinking he could fly. Instead, he did 100 pull-ups on the heating pipe of his building. Gardner also admits to occasional marijuana use (to take the edge off his very stressful life) and selling drugs. Drug dealing was a short-lived career path, and as soon as gangsters came to collect money he didn't have, he was out.
Gardner Gives Up His Research Job To Make Ends Meet
Gardner's son Christopher Jr. was born on January 28, 1981, while Gardner still worked as a research lab assistant at UCSF. In this position, Gardner only made about $8,000 a year (around $22,000 adjusted for inflation). This was even less than his initial work with Dr. Ellis, and he couldn't support his live-in girlfriend and their brand new childhood. He quit his job to sell medical equipment, like Will Smith did in the movie. This doubled his salary, at least at first.
Chris Gardner Never, Ever Went Broke Selling Medical Supplies
In the film, Chris Gardner is deeply struggling in his career as a medical supplies salesman. He ended up emptying his savings to buy a bunch of portable bone density scanning units. This never happened in real life. Gardner never, ever emptied his savings on medical equipment. He didn't just sell bone density scanners either. In real life, Gardner sold a number of products for a single brand, not one product in general. Still, Gardner really was struggling to pay rent and the family really would eventually get evicted.
The Man In The Red Ferrari Moment
In the film, Will Smith's Christopher approached a man in a red Ferrari on the street. He asked the man what he did for a living. This was pivotal moment in the film, but it played out a little differently in real life. This conversation never happened on the side of the street. Instead, it happened in a parking garage in 1981. Chris was leaving San Francisco General Hospital, saw the convertible and offered the guy who was driving it his parking spot. In exchange, he wanted the answer to two simple questions: "What do you do?" and "How do you do it?" The man obliged and said he was a stockbroker. Chris and the man decided to meet a few weeks later for lunch so he could learn the basics of Wall Street.
So Who Was This Man In Real Life And Did He Really Help Chris?
The infamous man in the red Ferrari was Bob Bridges, and he really did help Chris in real life. Bob happened to be one of the most successful stockbrokers in all of San Francisco. He made about $80,000 in a single month while working at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette. He didn't have to help out Chris, but he did. This part of the story is perhaps the most inspiring because Wall Street is often portrayed as the epitome of selfish greed (just look at Wolf Of Wall Street). Bob wasn't like this at all. After their lunch meeting, Bob offered to introduce Chris to branch managers at brokerage firms around town and set these meetings up for Chris.
Gardner Never Got Hit By A Car Chasing Stolen Medical Equipment
Sometimes movies just need to make things up for dramatic effect. Though Gardner's real life was already dramatic enough (the drug use, the affairs, the money problems), screenwriters still decided to make up some extra dramatic bits.
In the film, Will Smith's character chases a stolen bone density scanner. For fictional Gardner, this is life or death because he dumped all of his money into buying the scanners (which we already know never happened). He was hit by a car chasing the scanner, but in real life nothing like this ever happened or was ever close to happening.
Chris' Mother Inspired Him To Make $1 Million
Gardner never struggled financially with his career as a medical equipment salesman as much as the film made it seem, but he was never going to be a millionaire in that trade. It was actually his decision to have a career in Wall Street that led him to poverty and homelessness, but it was all in the pursuit of happiness. Gardner wanted to be a millionaire and had since he was young. He recalled the defining moment to have occurred when he was 16 years old and watching a Jacksonville vs. UCLA NCAA championship game. The announcers were talking about the future of Artis Gilmore and Pembrook Burrows, two of the star players. Chris said out loud that the players were probably going to make a million dollars. His mom replied, "Son, if you want to, one day you could make a million dollars." He truly believed this to be possible because of his mom.
Gardner Got His Big Wall Street Break 2013But Then It Was Taken Away
When Bob Bridges (that man with the red Ferrari) set up a bunch of meetings for Gardner, he ended up postponing all of his sales meetings and racking up tons of parking tickets meeting with managers. Eventually he got his big break 2013 he was accepted into a training program at E.F. Hutton. Gardner immediately quit his sales job, excited at his new endeavor. When Gardner showed up on his first day at work, he discovered that his hiring manager had been fired. Things were about to implode for Gardner, whose relationship had also been struggling for months. Things were about to come to head for him, Jackie and their son.
Gardner Got Arrested For Domestic Abuse And $1200 In Unpaid Parking Tickets
Gardner's relationship with Jackie was deteriorating, and in a heated moment, she tried to leave with their son Chris. While the pair were arguing, Gardner grabbed her wrists, and when he let go, she fell into a rose bush and got scratched by the thorns. Jackie called the police and two officers came to his door to arrest him. He was taken to the police station where he was also charged with $1,200 of unpaid parking tickets 2013 all those meetings with managers really added up. Chris stayed in jail over the weekend until he was able to see a judge, who sentenced him to 10 days at Santa Rita Prison. When he returned from jail, both Jackie and his son were gone.
Is The Rubik's Cube Story Real?
In the film, Will Smith's Chris stumbles upon a high-powered broker from Dean Witter who was struggling to solve a Rubik's Cube during a cab ride. Will Smith claims he could solve the cube if he is just given the chance. Of course, Smith solves the cube and the person gives him an interview at Dean Witter for the firm's training program. This was completely fictional. In real life, Gardner got the interview by befriending Marty, a Dean Witter stockbroker, who ended up helping him out.
Gardner Really Was Underdressed For His Meeting With Dean Witter
Before it merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997, Dean Witter was one of the largest brokerage firms. Chris Gardner had an important interview at the firm, and in the film he showed up completely underdressed. This tidbit from the movie was true. Though Gardner didn't come straight from jail, Jackie had taken all of his belongings when she ran away with their son. Gardner was staying with a friend, Latrell Hammond, and didn't have any dress clothes. Instead, he showed up at the interview wearing a Members Only jacket and sneakers that were speckled with paint. In real life, Gardner didn't make a joke about his pants. Instead, he told Mr. Albanese the truth (excluding the fact that he was in jail -- because that's kind of a downer on a job interview).
Gardner Actually Did Get Paid For His Work At Dean Witter (But It Wasn2019t Much)
Gardner's financial problems were very, very real, as exaggerated as they may have been in the film. In the movie, Will Smith's version of Gardner landed a job at Dean Witter's training program. This job had no salary and required Smith to work for full days without being paid a dime. In real life, this training program existed and Gardner was definitely on board.He made the paltry sum of $1,000 a month while he was training. This caused him to pick up a number of odd jobs to make ends meet 2013 and some were way stranger than others.
Gardner Had No Idea Where His Son Was For Four Months
In real life, Gardner never really looked for his son. He had no idea where his son was until four months after he started his training program. After four months, Jackie located Chris at Latrell's house. She would frequently call the house and Gardner would hear Chris Jr. crying in the background. Jackie and Gardner would continuously fight on the phone and she'd hang up before telling him where she was. Jackie returned to San Francisco with a two-year-old Chris Jr. four months after she left and decided to let him live with his father. He was given sole custody, but there was one major problem. Gardner's building didn't allow children, but he hadn't saved enough money for a rental home. Gardner and his son became homeless.
Gardner Hid His Homelessness From His Co-Workers
Gardner was deeply embarrassed by the fact that he was gainfully employed but still homeless. His salary of $1,000 a month was not enough to afford a place to live for him and his son. He continued to work through his training program at Dean Witter while hiding the fact that he was homeless. Gardner often didn't have money for food and found himself choosing whether his son would eat or have a safe place to sleep. All the while, Gardner was slowly saving up to afford permanent housing. He did all of this to provide a better future for his child, and he had to get a little bit creative.
Gardner And His Son Really Slept In A Subway Bathroom
Finding safe places to sleep was important, but it was also really difficult. One of these places was the bathroom at MacArthur Station in Oakland, Ca. which was emphasized in the movie. It only happened once or twice, in the grimmest moments of homeless for the pair, but it did happen. Chris and his son would lock the bathroom and remain quiet when people knocked. They stayed in the subway for around two weeks. Gardner and his son slept in various subway trains and waiting areas in BART stations and the airport.
Gardner Was The Only Father Allowed In The Mother-Child Homeless Shelter
In the film, the homeless shelter was shown to be unisex, but in real life, Glide Memorial Church's homeless shelter was only for mothers and their kids. Chris was the exception. Reverend Cecil Williams (who played himself in the film) felt bad for Chris after he lined up outside of the shelter day in and day out. Lines for rooms usually formed around 6:00 pm every day and those who slept there had to leave by 8:00 am. It was difficult for Chris to make the line because of his work hours, and many nights they'd end up sleeping in the subway or airport because they missed the cutoff time.
Chris Gardner Paid Back Reverend Cecil 25 Years Later
Reverend Cecil was the reason Gardner ever got a room at the shelter. The truth was that as a father, he wasn't supposed to be there at all. Gardner never forgot the reverend's kindness and paid him back 25 years later. Gardner bankrolled a $50 million project at the Glide Memorial Church. This initiative created affordable housing for poor families like Gardner's. It also created a complex of businesses and retail shops. The idea was to create employment opportunities for the poor people in this community housing. It was Chris' $50 million way of paying it forward since the shelter had been so integral to his son's safety in the early 1980s.
Chris Donated Blood For Money 2013 And Scammed Hotels
To raise some extra cash, Gardner actually donated blood. He felt really guilty about the entire process because he saw that many desperate people also did the same thing. This wasn't the only way Chris grabbed a few extra dollars to help feed his son. He also started scamming hotels.
Gardner found himself in a hotel lobby one night and observed a man asking the front desk for a refund after the cigarette machine ate his money. Chris saw this as an opportunity and went to various hotels and told them their cigarette vending machines ate his money, too. Gardner was able to make around $25 a day in fake refunds. It wasn't much, and it made him feel horrible, but it allowed his son to eat.
Chris Became Friends With Some Prostitutes
Chris frequented The Palms Motel, which cost just $25 a room for him and his son (this was just about as much as he made scamming hotels). The hotel had a number of local hookers, who started to notice Gardner and his stroller. Because Chris Jr. was never seen with a mother, the prostitutes took pity on them. Every once in a while a prostitute would slip Gardner $5.
In the book, Gardner wrote fondly about the prostitutes. "There was a purity in the help these women gave us, with nothing asked in return. Kindness, pure and simple. On uncertain days, I thought of us as wandering in the desert, knowing that we were being led to a promised land and that God was sending his manna to feed us in a most unique way," he said.
Gardner Became A Top Trainee At Dean Witter
Gardner had a knack for working his way up the ladder. He had done so with his job as a medical researcher and was determined to do so at Dean Witter. In order to succeed, Gardner arrived early every day and left late every single night. He was persistent in calling prospective clients and made it a personal goal to make 200 calls a day. He passed his Series 7 Exam 2013 an extremely difficult exam required to trade stocks and bonds 2013 and later became a full employee of Dean Witter, but not before struggling with homelessness and poverty.
Gardner Was Not The Only Trainee Hired (Like The Movie Suggests)
High stakes make a movie much more interesting, which is probably why they made it seem like Dean Witter only hired a single person from their training program. This was not the case. Dean Witter's training program consisted of about 20 different people. In real life, nearly every single person who passed the Series 7 licensing exam got a job at the end of their training. Gardner passed this extremely difficult exam on his first try and scored an 88%. He definitely deserved his job at Dean Witter, but he wasn2019t the only person hired.
Gardner Enrolled His Son In An Illegal Daycare
Gardner was working extremely hard at his job, but his son had to go somewhere during the day. You can't leave a two-year-old on the streets (even though he was five in the film). This place was called Happyness 2013 with a "y." Happyness daycare center was the bottom of the food chain as far as daycares go. It wasn't high class like an au pair. It wasn't even licensed like a regular daycare center. No, this place was all under wraps. Happyness was a place where an unlicensed woman watched children of poor families, and it's the reason Gardner could work.
"Happyness" Is Spelled With A "Y" For This Reason
The illegal daycare was so integral to Gardner's success as a father and stockbroker that he ended up naming his memoir after it.
"There was a place once in Oakland [Ca] near the MacArthur Park station that became very, very, very important to my son and I at the most challenging stage of our journey, and they spelled happyness with a 'y' and that's why it's spelled that way," he said. "2026It's personal [the spelling]. It's definitely personal. ...That particular place was a day-care center, and at this point in my life just getting my son into a day-care center was a major, major, major challenge and I had to learn about the food chain of day-care in our country."
Chris Made His First Million By 34 Years Old
Despite Chris' struggle with homelessness, his son Chris Jr. really did say his father was "a good poppa" in that one moment that launched millions of tears in the film. When Chris Jr. said this, the pair was still homeless, but by the time Gardner turned 34 years old, he had already made his first million. As soon as the father-son duo was no longer homeless, Chris Jr. repeated his sentiments. Gardner was giving his son a bath when he stood up and said, yet again, "Poppa, you know what? You're a good poppa."
When Chris finally got his first million, he bought two Ferraris 2013 a red one and a black one. The black Ferrari was originally owned by Michael Jordan and had been customized to fit longer legs (since Michael Jackson is so tall). It had finally all come full circle.