Johnny Knoxville is best known for Jackass, a series on MTV (2000-2003) and a franchise that led to more short films and features. He got his start in entertainment in the early 1990s, moving to Los Angeles and using his hometown as his surname. He got by doing TV commercials and writing for magazines, including Big Brother, for whom he made a video tape demonstrating self-defense tools on himself. Knoxville's charisma and fearlessness in the performance of stupid stunts made him popular in independent videos and, with the help of pals like Bam Margera and Spike Jonze, landed a gig with MTV for Jackass. Knoxville ended the show after three seasons of popularity and occasional controversy (viewers kept getting hurt trying to duplicate the stupid stunts). Since then he's managed to keep the Jackass brand alive while working on an acting career. His films as an actor include Men in Black II (2002, starring Will Smith), The Dukes of Hazzard (2005, with Jessica Simpson) and The Ringer (2005, co-starring Katherine Heigl).
Career Highlights: Jackass: Number Two, A Dirty Shame, Jackass: The Movie
First Major Screen Credit: Jackass (2000)
Biography
Johnny Knoxville became both a beloved goofball and a lightning rod for controversy as soon as his signature TV show, Jackass, premiered on MTV in 2000. The show, which featured Knoxville and his friends executing a variety of stupid pranks and dangerous stunts, made an instant star of its hip, easygoing, developmentally arrested host, who was quickly signed on for a variety of film projects. However, its subject matter of foolish bicycle jumps, gross eating feats, and pepper spray testing drew the ire of concerned parents whose children were hurting themselves trying to imitate their hero.
Knoxville was born Philip John Clapp in Knoxville, TN, on March 11, 1971, son of a used car salesman. At age eight, the asthmatic suffered a simultaneous bout of flu, pneumonia, and bronchitis that nearly killed him. Knoxville would later joke that surviving this period convinced him he was invincible, making possible his future vocation as a performer who would injure himself for laughs. Knoxville had originally planned to go into acting through normal channels, attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, CA. However, it was while writing for a skateboarding magazine called Big Brother that Knoxville got his big break. Working on a story about self-defense equipment, Knoxville agreed to let magazine editor Jeff Tremaine film him testing the devices on himself. Hence, Jackass was born, with Tremaine, Knoxville, and director Spike Jonze serving as co-creators. MTV won a bidding war with Comedy Central, and the show became a hit -- one quickly festooned with warning labels not to try this at home.
After a role in the little-seen indie Desert Blues (1995) (credited as Phillip John) and a blink-and-you'll-miss-him appearance in Coyote Ugly (2000), Knoxville was offered a string of film roles following the success of Jackass, as well as a stint on Saturday Night Live, which he turned down. However, his cinematic coming-out party was delayed when Big Trouble, which featured a nuclear weapon smuggled aboard a commercial airplane, was pushed back indefinitely due to the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. In 2001, he was also cast in the smaller films The Tree, The Ranger, and Life Without Dick, in which he plays the title character. As if one Knoxville wasn't enought to keep fans in stitches, the death-defying funnyman turned up as a two-headed alien in Men in Black II before taking his small screen antics to the silver screen, unrestrained by the restrictions of television, in Jackass: The Movie (both 2002).
Though to this point Knoxville's fairly minimal film roles (of course excluding Jackass: The Movie) called for any true acting ability, increasingly prominant roles in such efforts as Grand Theft Parsons (2003) and Walking Tall (2004) found the likeable Jackass successfully developing a notable film career. Following a supporting performance alongside wrestler-turned-actor in Walking Tall, Knoxville landed a role in self-described "Prince of Puke" director John Waters' Baltimore-based comedy A Dirty Shame. In 2005 Knoxville made two big attempts to court the mainstream, though neither struck box office gold. He starred as Luke Duke in the big-screen version of The Dukes of Hazzard, and was the lead in the comedy The Ringer, where he played a man who pretended to be disabled so he could compete in the Special Olympics. He reteamed with the Jackass crew for a second feature film playfully titled Jackass: Number Two. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Philip John Clapp (born March 11, 1971), known by his stage name Johnny Knoxville, is an Americanactor, comedian and daredevil. He has been featured in a number of films, but is best known as the co-creator and principal star of the MTV series Jackass and its subsequent films.
Knoxville credits a copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road given to him by his cousin, country singer/songwriter Roger Alan Wade, with giving him the acting bug.[1] After graduating from South-Young High School in 1989 in Knoxville, he moved to California to become an actor, and at first appeared in commercials and as an extra. Not getting the big break he had hoped for, he began writing and pitching article ideas to various magazines. He also attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on a scholarship, but dropped out within two weeks. An idea to test self-defense equipment on himself was picked up by the Jeff Tremaine-helmed skateboarding magazine Big Brother, and the stunts were filmed and included in Big Brother's Number Two video.
Eventually, Knoxville, Tremaine, Sean Cliver and Dave Carnie produced a pilot that used Big Brother footage along with footage from Bam Margera's CKY videos, and with help from Tremaine's friend, film director Spike Jonze, they pitched a series to various networks. A deal was made with MTV and Jackass was born.[2] Knoxville also participated in the Gumball 3000 for Jackass along with co-stars Steve-O and Chris Pontius and Jackass director Jeff Tremaine and producer Dimitry Elyashkevich. Prior to Jackass landing on MTV, Knoxville and company turned down an offer from Saturday Night Live to perform similar stunts for the show[citation needed] on a weekly basis (Knoxville eventually did host SNL in 2005).
Knoxville was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Lemoyne and Philip Clapp, who was a car salesman.[3][4] He has one daughter, Madison. She can be seen in the credits for Jackass Number Two. On February 1, 2007, Knoxville and his wife of twelve years, Melanie, filed for legal separation. Shortly afterwards, they filed for divorce.[5] They were married on May 15, 1995.
On January 15, 2009 at the Los Angeles International Airport security workers discovered an inert grenade in his carry-on; he was detained and was cited for carrying a prohibited item into the airport.[6] Knoxville explained on February 4, 2009 on The Howard Stern Show how this was a prop from a commercial and that an assistant had packed his bag for him. Also on that February 4 visit he explained how he tore his urethra during a stunt for Nitro Circus explaining how he has to flush it twice daily. He said this is done by sticking a tube into his penis all the way up to his bladder (10–11 inches). Johnny said the process prevented scar tissue from forming.[7] On August 18, 2009, Knoxville announced that he and his girlfriend Naomi Nelson are expecting a baby.[8]
