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Johnny Knoxville extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Johnny Knoxville
Knoxville at premiere of The Dukes of Hazzard, 2005
Born	Philip John Clapp March 11, 1971 (1971-03-11) (age 39) Knoxville, Tennessee USA
Other name(s)	PJ
Occupation	Writer, Producer, Actor
Years active	1992-present
Spouse(s)	Melanie Lynn Clapp (1995—2009) divorced 1 daughter
Domestic partner(s)	Naomi Nelson 1 son
Official website

Philip John Clapp (born March 11, 1971), known by his stage name Johnny Knoxville, is an American actor, 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.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Jackass 1.2 Film and television roles 2 Personal life 3 Filmography 4 References 5 External links

Career

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.

Jackass

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).

After the role in Jackass, he is considered a gay icon.³

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 has also worked with director John Waters in A Dirty Shame and starred in Daltry Calhoun, written and directed by Katrina Holden Bronson and produced by Quentin Tarantino. In The Ringer, Knoxville was cast as an able-bodied office worker who joins the Special Olympics to pay for a surgical operation for his gardener. He played a two-headed alien in Men in Black II. He also 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 an episode of King of the Hill. Knoxville appeared as a supporting character to The Rock in the 2004 remake of Walking Tall. He also guest-starred on the pilot of the show Unhitched.

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, among other pranks.

Personal life

Knoxville was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Lemoyne and Philip Clapp, who was a car salesman.⁴⁵ 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.⁶ 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.⁷ 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). Knoxville said the process prevented scar tissue from forming.⁸ On August 18, 2009, Knoxville announced that he and his girlfriend Naomi Nelson are expecting a baby.⁹ Nelson gave birth to son Rocko Akira Clapp on December 20, 2009.¹⁰

Filmography

• Desert Blues (1995) – Bob
• Coyote Ugly (2000) – College Guy (uncredited)
• Life Without Dick (2001) – Dick Rasmusson
• Don't Try This At Home: The Steve-O Video (2001) – Himself
• Big Trouble (2002) – Eddie Leadbetter
• Deuces Wild (2002) – Vinnie Fish
• Men in Black II (2002) – Scrad/Charlie
• Jackass: The Movie (2002) – Himself/Irving Zisman
• Grand Theft Parsons (2003) – Phil Kaufman
• Walking Tall (2004) – Ray Templeton
• A Dirty Shame (2004) – Ray Ray Perkins
• Lords of Dogtown (2005) – Topper Burks
• The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) – Luke Duke
• The Devils Rejects (2005)- Cop (uncredited)
• Daltry Calhoun (2005) – Daltry Calhoun
• The Ringer (2005) – Steve Barker (Jeffy Dahmor)
• Jackass: Number Two (2006) – Himself/Irving Zisman
• Jackass 2.5 (2007) – Himself

Upcoming:

• Fruitcake (2010) – Unknown
• Hawaiian Dick (2011) – Byrd
• The Drop-Out (pre-production, 2010) – Unknown (with co-star Cher)
• Father of Invention (2010)
• The Drop-Out (2010)
• Jackass 3D (2010)

References

External links

• Official Jackass site
• Johnny Knoxville at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with IGN.com. Johnny Knoxville reveals what scares him

v • d • e Jackass Main Cast Johnny Knoxville | Bam Margera | Steve-O | Chris Pontius | Ryan Dunn | Jason "Wee Man" Acuña | Preston Lacy | Dave England | Ehren McGhehey Supporting Cast Brandon DiCamillo | Ted "Rake Yohn" Webb | Chris "Raab Himself" Raab | Phil Margera | April Margera | Manny Puig | Stephanie Hodge | Loomis Fall Crew Jeff Tremaine | Spike Jonze | Dimitry Elyashkevich | Rick Kosick | Lance Bangs Television shows Jackass | Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover | Wildboyz | Viva La Bam | Homewrecker | Blastazoid | Bam's Unholy Union | Dr. Steve-O Films Jackass: The Movie | Jackass Number Two | Jackass 3D Miscellaneous Big Brother | "Corona" | Jackass 2.5 | Jackass: The Game | CKY Crew | CKY Videos | Haggard: The Movie | Don't Try This At Home: The Steve-O Video