Johnny Knoxville Biography

Philip John Clapp, known by his stage name Johnny Knoxville (born March 11, 1971), is an American daredevil, actor, comedian, screenwriter and film producer. He is best known as a creator and cast member of the MTV series Jackass.

Early life

Knoxville was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Lemoyne Clapp (née Houck), who taught Sunday school, and Philip Clapp, a tire/car salesman. Knoxville credits a copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, given to him by his cousin, singer-songwriter Roger Alan Wade, with giving him the acting bug. After graduating from South-Young High School in 1989 in Knoxville, he moved to California to become an actor. In the beginning, Knoxville appeared mostly in commercials and made several minor appearances as an extra. When the "big break" he sought eluded him, he decided to create his own opportunities by writing and pitching article ideas to various magazines. An idea to test self-defense equipment on himself captured the interest of Jeff Tremaine's skateboarding magazine Big Brother, and the stunts were filmed and included in Big Brother "Number Two" video. In October 2013, Knoxville revealed that he comes from significant inbreeding. Knoxville discovered the shocking revelations when he hired America's top genealogist to help trace his family tree. It was during the search that the extent of inbreeding among his family was actually discovered, the genealogist informed Knoxville. "Sit down. You know, in these rural mountain regions you come from, no one ever goes into the community and no one ever leaves the community. So it's not uncommon that there's in-breeding in those communities", the genealogist said. Knoxville asked if there was inbreeding in his family, the genealogist replied with "a significant amount". What would usually be considered an alarming news to most, Knoxville took in excellent humour, a behavior he displayed before.

Career

Jackass

Knoxville and co-founder Joseph R. Sperry are responsible for many of the ideas in Jackass. The show also stars Jeff Tremaine, Sean Cliver, and Dave Carnie who produced a pilot that used footage from Big Brother and Bam Margera's CKY videos. 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. Knoxville also participated in the Gumball 3000 for Jackass along with co-stars Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jackass director Jeff Tremaine, and producer Dimitry Elyashkevich. Prior to Jackass premiering on MTV, Knoxville and company turned down an offer to perform their stunts for Saturday Night Live on a weekly basis, though Knoxville later hosted a 2005 episode of the show.

Film and television roles

Knoxville has been in several feature films, most notably starring opposite Seann William Scott in Jay Chandrasekhar's adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard. He starred in Jackass: The Movie, Jackass Number Two, and Jackass 3D (which marked the 10-year anniversary of the franchise). He played a two-headed alien in the 2002 film Men in Black II. Knoxville also worked with John Waters in A Dirty Shame in 2004, and appeared as a supporting character to The Rock in Walking Tall in the same year. He starred in Katrina Holden Bronson's Daltry Calhoun in 2005, and in The Ringer as an office worker who pretends to be disabled and joins the Special Olympics to pay for surgery for his office's janitor. He starred in the movie Lords of Dogtown as Topper Burks, made a minor appearance in the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly, and was featured as a guest voice on two episodes of King of the Hill.

Knoxville appeared in the John Madden-directed adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, Killshot. He guest-starred in a Season 3 episode "Prank Wars" on Viva La Bam, in which he and Ryan Dunn trashed Bam Margera's Hummer and performed other pranks. He also voiced himself in an episode of Family Guy. Knoxville also co-produces The Dudesons in America and the now-canceled Nitro Circus on MTV. In 2010, Knoxville hosted a three-part online video for Palladium Boots titled Detroit Lives. The videos focus on the resurgence of creativity in Detroit.

Production credits

Knoxville has a production company called Dickhouse Productions, which he owns and operates with Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze of the Jackass franchise. Dickhouse projects include The Birth of Big Air (2010), a documentary about Mat Hoffman that was part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series, and The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2010), both of which have been picked up by Tribeca Films.

Personal life

Knoxville married Melanie Lynn Cates on May 15, 1995. They have a daughter, Madison (born 1996). His daughter can be heard in the credits for Jackass Number Two, is seen in "The Making of Jackass Two" on the special features on the DVD, and was seen in the credits of Jackass 3D, punching Tremaine with a boxing glove. After 11 years of marriage, the couple separated in July 2006. Knoxville filed for divorce on July 3, 2007. The marriage was legally ended in March 2008, with final divorce arrangements settled in July 2009. The former couple share custody of their daughter.

On August 18, 2009, Knoxville announced that he and his girlfriend Naomi Nelson were expecting a baby. Nelson gave birth to a son, Rocko Akira Clapp, on December 20, 2009 in Los Angeles. Knoxville and Nelson married on September 24, 2010. Nelson gave birth to a daughter, Arlo Lemoyne Yoko Clapp, on October 6, 2011, in Los Angeles.

Incidents

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. He was released following the investigation when it was determined that the item was a prop from a commercial, and that an assistant had packed his bag for him.

On February 4, 2009, Knoxville explained on The Howard Stern Show how he tore his urethra during a stunt for Nitro Circus explaining how he had to flush it twice daily. He said this was done by "sticking a tube into his penis all the way up to his bladder", referring to the practice of catheterization. Knoxville said the process prevented scar tissue from forming.

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Desert Blues	Bob
2000	Coyote Ugly	College guy
2002	Life Without Dick	Dick Rasmusson
	Big Trouble	Eddie Leadbetter
	Deuces Wild	Vinnie Fish
	Men in Black II	Scrad / Charlie
	Jackass: The Movie	Himself	Writer
2003	Grand Theft Parsons	Phil Kaufman
2004	Walking Tall	Ray Templeton
	A Dirty Shame	Ray Ray Perkins
2005	Lords of Dogtown	Topper Burks
	The Dukes of Hazzard	Luke Duke
	Daltry Calhoun	Daltry Calhoun
	The Ringer	Steve Barker
2006	Jackass Number Two	Himself	Writer and producer
2007	Jackass 2.5
2010	Father of Invention	Troy Coangelo
	Jackass 3D	Himself	Writer and producer
	Detroit Lives		Documentary
2011	Jackass 3.5
	The Dry Gulch Kid	Bobby Ryder
2012	Nature Calls	Kirk
	Fun Size	Jörgen
2013	The Last Stand	Lewis Dinkum
	Movie 43	Pete
	Small Apartments	Tommy Balls
	Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa	Irving Zisman	Writer and producer

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	The Ben Stiller Show	Cure fan	1 episode
1999	boob	Himself
2000"2002	Jackass		25 episodes Creator
2001	Don't Try This at Home: The Steve-O Video
	CKY 3
	The Andy Dick Show	Wannabe Andy Dick	2 episodes
2001"2005	The Tonight Show with Jay Leno	Himself	3 episodes
2001"2010	The Daily Show		4 episodes
2002	CKY 4 Latest & Greatest
	Jackass Backyard BBQ
	MTV Cribs		1 episode
	Howard Stern		2 episodes
2003"2006	Wildboyz		10 episodes
2003"2009	Late Night with Conan O'Brien		5 episodes
2003	Player$		1 episode
	V Graham Norton
	Australian Idol
2004	SexTV
	Viva La Bam
2004"2010	Late Show with David Letterman		4 episodes
2005	Sunrise		1 episode
	Good Morning Australia
	The Ellen DeGeneres Show
	Jackass: Gumball 3000 Rally Special
	Saturday Night Live		2 episodes
2005"2010	Jimmy Kimmel Live!		8 episodes
	Last Call with Carson Daly		2 episodes
2006	King of the Hill	Peter Sterling	1 episode
	The Henry Rollins Show	Himself
	Howard Stern on Demand
2007	Adventures in Hollyhood
2008	WWE Raw
	Jackass World 24 Hour Takeover
	Family Guy
	King of the Hill	Hoyt Platter
	Unhitched	Chuck
2009	Dogg After Dark	Himself
	Dancing with the Stars		3 episodes
	Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory		1 episode
	Nitro Circus		10 episodes Creator and executive producer
	The Goode Family	Dean	1 episode
2010	The Dudesons	Himself
	The Dudesons in America		3 episodes Producer
	Late Night with Jimmy Fallon		1 episode
	WWE Raw
	The Graham Norton Show
2011	Ridiculousness
2012	Loiter Squad
	SpongeBob SquarePants	Johnny Krill