90s TV star believes his iconic role in hit sitcom ‘ended his career’-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

A star of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air has said starring on the show halted his acting career (Picture: Rex)

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air star Alfonso Ribeiro believes appearing in the sitcom was a ‘sacrifice’ for his career.

From 1990 until 1996, he played Carlton Banks, the cousin of Will Smith’s lead character on the series.

He became known for frequently dancing to Tom Jones’ It’s Not Unusual, a dance routine that gained fame as ‘The Carlton’.

However nearly 20 years on, the actor has said that job ‘stopped me from acting again’.

‘Playing Carlton on Fresh Prince became a sacrifice. I used to always say doing Carlton was the greatest and worst thing that ever happened to me,’ he said.

‘It was one of the greatest roles that I ever was fortunate enough to play, but it was also the role that stopped me from acting again because people couldn’t see me as anything else.

Alfonso Ribeiro starred on the 90s sitcom alongside Will Smith (Picture: NBC/Stuffed Dog/Quincy Jones Ent/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

‘The sacrifice was not having an acting career anymore,’ he added when speaking to Closer Weekly.

However, the 52-year-old has said he doesn’t regret signing up to the series and loved spending time with the cast, which also included James Avery, Janet Hubert-Whitten, Daphne Maxwell Reid and Karyn Parsons.

‘Those are some great memories of just being together,’ he recalled.

In recent years he turned his attention to hosting (Picture: Mingasson/ABC/REX/Shutterstock)

Although it’s been nearly a decade since Alfonso had an acting role, he has turned his attention to hosting in recent years, currently fronting Dancing with the Stars in the US, as well as America’s Funniest Home Videos and Jack Hanna’s Passport.

But he did say he would ‘go back to acting if it was exactly the right thing’.

After starting his performing career as an eight-year-old when cast in the Broadway production of The Tap Dance Kid, Alfonso went on to appear alongside Michael Jackson in a 1984 Pepsi commercial and was then cast in the sitcom Silver Spoons.

He then appeared in episodes of Magnum, P.I. and A Different World before The Fresh Prince came calling.

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