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Vernee Watson
A character actress with an extensive and decades-long career in some of the most well-known American television shows of their time, Vernee Watson-Johnson was perhaps most familiar to a generation as Viola 'Vy' Smith, the mother of Will Smith's lead character in the hugely popular sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (NBC 1990-96). She also worked extensively as an animation voice artist. Offscreen, she was also in the media in 2005 when she appeared as a witness for the defense at the second trial of Michael Jackson on child molestation charges.