James Avery, the actor who portrayed Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (and also Shredder on TMNT, actually) died yesterday. That is a bummer because Uncle Phil was the best TV “dad” there was, even though he wasn’t really Will’s dad. 

On a related note, while not strictly about Avery’s death, the above video clip is making the rounds again, with people claiming that Will Smith went off script in it because his father left his family in real life. This is not true. The lines were in the script. Will Smith is an actor, and sometimes they do things like act really well. His father was actually, according to Smith himself, a pretty good dad. He was still around until Will was 13, when he and Will’s mother separated.

This has been your Knowledge Fact ™ for the day. RIP Uncle Phil.