Johnny Knoxville

Bringing the motto ‘no pain, no gain’ to the acting business, Johnny Knoxville has taken being a jackass to a whole new success level. Heck, he’s even making movies where he doesn’t get hit in the nuts! Philip John Clapp, born March 11, 1971, in Knoxville, Tennessee (the inspiration for his stage name), headed directly to L.A. after graduating high school.

After some extra gigs and sporadic commercial work, Johnny began pitching ideas to various magazines. An article describing what happened to Johnny after he tested an array of self-defense devices on himself caught the attention of Jeff Tremaine, the editor of skateboarding magazine Big Brother. Tremaine filmed Johnny’s exploits, which he included on skateboard compilation videos featuring Chris Pontius, Steve-O and Dave England. The guys produced a pilot featuring their stunts along with footage from Bam Margera, and Jackass was born. The MTV series, running from 2000 to 2002, produced two  spin-offs, Viva La Bam and Wildboyz and two feature films - with a third on the way.

Thanks to Jackass, Johnny landed jobs in Men in Black II, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Ringer and A Dirty Shame. One thing’s for sure, Johnny is the only man in Hollywood to stand up to a flamethrower while wearing a suit made of beef.