Johnny Knoxville

Johnny Knoxville
Birth name	Philip John Clapp
Born	March 11, 1971
Birthplace	Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Residence	Los Angeles, California, USA
Nationality	American
Spouse	Melanie Lynn Cates (m.1995) Naomi Nelson (m. 2010)
Aliases	PJ, Knox, The Captain
Jackass Career
Roles	Cast, Producer
Film	Jackass Pentology
Seasons	1, 2 and 3
First Stunt	Poo Cocktail
Known for	Self Defense, The Cup Test
Wildboyz Career
Roles	Guest Appearances
Viva la Bam Career
Roles	Guest Appearances
Seasons	3

Philip John Clapp, better known as Johnny Knoxville, is an American comic actor 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.

Career

Knoxville's acting career started out small, first appearing 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-defence 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

Main article: Jackass (TV series)

Knoxville is responsible for many of the ideas in Jackass, and is often seen as the de facto leader of the crew. The show is directed by Jeff Tremaine, who produced a pilot that used footage from Big Brother and Bam Margera's CKY videos. 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. 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 on a weekly basis (Knoxville eventually did host SNL in 2005). When bidding was going on for the show, MTV and Comedy Central were having a bidding war for the rights for the show. Eventually MTV won the war and thus Jackass was born. Throughout his stunt career, Knoxville has suffered sixteen concussions, and has been told by his doctor that he cannot afford to take anymore hits to the head, presumably marking the end of his stunt career. He has expressed interest in continuing have a role in future Jackass projects from behind the camera.

Film and television roles

Knoxville has been in several feature films, but interestingly his acting career began with a role in a low-budget Blue Porn film, Desert Blues. In the early days, he also played minor roles in several commercials, such as a 1995 Dentyne Ice Gum commercial, a 1999 Mountain Dew commercial, a Taco Bell commercial and a Coor's Light commercial alongside John Wayne. He appeared as an extra in the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly, and alongside Sarah Jessica Parker in Life Without Dick as the titular character. He played minor villainous roles in Big Trouble and Deuces Wild, and as a two-headed alien in Men in Black II. He played his first protagonist role in Grand Theft Parsons, and as a supporting character to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the 2004 remake of Walking Tall. He also had a role in Lords of Dogtown, and notably starred as Luke Duke opposite Seann William Scott and Jessica Simpson in Jay Chandrasekhar's adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard. He starred as the titular character of Daltry Calhoun, produced by Quentin Tarantino, and played a controversial role In The Ringer as an able-bodied office worker who fraudulently joins the Special Olympics. He had roles in Father of Invention, Nature Calls, Fun Size, and alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Last Stand. He featured in Movie 43, Small Apartments alongside Matt Lucas and Billy Crystal, and, perhaps most notably, as the voice of Leonardo in the 2014 live action remake of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He was replaced in the TMNT 2016 live action sequel, with his role of Leonardo being replaced by Mark Caso. Knoxville states that he was not contacted regarding this decision, but that he wishes them all the best. He has also worked with director John Waters in A Dirty Shame and starred in. and was featured as a guest voice on episodes of animated series such as King of the Hill, Spongebob Squarepants, and Family Guy. Knoxville appeared He also guest-starred on the pilot of the show Unhitched.

Knoxville guest-starred in a Season 3 episode "Prank Wars" on Viva La Bam, in which he and Ryan Dunn destroyed Bam Margera's Hummer, among other pranks. He often appeared in episodes of Nitro Circus, along with Mat Hoffman and Jeff Tremaine. He also guest starred in multiple Wildboyz episodes, which spurred him to create Jackass Number Two.

Knoxville was slated to appear in the John Madden-directed adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, Killshot, however this project was cancelled. He was set to voice the villain in the 2013 animated film, Epic, but was replaced last minute for unknown reasons.

Knoxville is set to appear in an upcoming Hulu series titled "Reeboot."

Personal life

Knoxville was born Philip John Clapp in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Philip Clapp (1935–2018), was a tire/car salesman, and his mother, Lemoyne Clapp (née Houck; 1938–2017), taught Sunday school. He has two sisters who are eight and ten years older than him respectively. The elder Phil Clapp owned a tire company and employed many crazy characters who acted as Knoxville's uncle figures growing up. His father would often pull pranks on his employees, such as having them unknowingly drink ex-lax milkshakes, sending them fake letters from the V.D. clinic, and staging gunfights at Christmas. As a child, Knoxville was encouraged to join in on these pranks, such as punching his father's employees in the crotch. He sites his father and this rowdy upbringing as the genesis of his love for pranks.

Despite his eventual career in dangerous stunts, Knoxville has suffered with asthma for most of his life. At the age of eight, he had the flu, pneumonia, and bronchitis all at the same time and came close to dying. Due to not keeping good health as a child, he came to find comfort in his hospital visits, and has had a relationship of some degree with drugs since childhood, such as adrenaline shots during his bad asthma spells. He also has OCD, and would bite all of his fingernails and toenails down to the quick as a child.

He was deeply inspired by stuntmen such as Evel Knievel, and country musicians such as Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. 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. After graduating from South-Young High School in 1989 in Knoxville, Tennessee, he moved to California to become an actor.

He married fashion designer Melanie Lynn Cates on May 15, 1995. That year, Melanie became pregnant, which urged Knoxville to start making real money to support his family, as the "big break" he sought had eluded him. In 1996, his first daughter, Madison Clapp was born. He has a tattoo of her name across his chest. He decided to create his own opportunities by writing and pitching article ideas to various magazines, eventually leading to his Jackass career. On February 1, 2007, Knoxville and his wife of twelve years, Melanie, filed for legal separation. Shortly afterwards, they filed for divorce in July 2006.

On August 18, 2009, Knoxville announced that he and his girlfriend, Naomi Nelson, were expecting their first child. Nelson gave birth to a son that December in Los Angeles named Rocko Clapp. Knoxville and Nelson married on September 24, 2010. Nelson gave birth to a daughter named Arlo Clapp in October 2011, in Los Angeles. On June 17, 2022, it was reported that Knoxville filed for divorce from his wife after quietly separating the year prior.

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Desert Blues	Bob
1998	Number Two: Big Brother	Himself (uncredited)	Direct-to-video
1999	boob	Himself	Direct-to-video
2001	Crap: Big Brother	Himself (uncredited)	Direct-to-video
2000	Coyote Ugly	College Guy
2001	Don't Try This at Home: The Steve-O Video	Himself	Direct-to-video
2001	CKY3	Himself	Guest appearances Direct-to-video
2002	Life Without Dick	Dick Rasmusson
2002	Big Trouble	Eddie Leadbetter
2002	Deuces Wild	Vinnie 'Fish'
2002	Men in Black II	Scrad / Charlie
2002	Jackass: The Movie	Himself and Irving Zisman	Writer and producer
2002	CKY4: The Latest & Greatest	Himself	Guest appearances Direct-to-video
2003	Grand Theft Parsons	Phil Kaufman
2004	Walking Tall	Deputy Ray Templeton
2004	A Dirty Shame	Ray 'Ray-Ray' Perkins
2004	Steve-O: The Early Years	Himself	Guest appearances Direct-to-video
2005	Lords of Dogtown	Topper Burks
2005	The Dukes of Hazzard	Luke Duke
2005	Daltry Calhoun	Daltry Calhoun
2005	The Ringer	Steve Barker / Jeffie
2006	Ultimate Predator	Himself	Direct-to-video Guest appearances
2006	Jackass Number Two	Himself and Irving Zisman	Writer and producer
2007	Jackass 2.5
2007	The Man Who Souled the World	Himself	Documentary
2008	Jackass Presents: Mat Hoffman's Tribute to Evel Knievel		Direct-to-video Executive producer
2009	Jackass: The Lost Tapes		Direct-to-video
2010	Father of Invention	Troy Coangelo
2010	Jackass 3D	Himself and Irving Zisman	Writer and producer
2011	Jackass 3.5
2012	Nitro Circus: The Movie	Himself	Guest appearance
2012	Nature Calls	Kirk
2012	Fun Size	Jörgen	Uncredited
2013	The Last Stand	Lewis Dinkum
2013	Movie 43	Pete
2013	Small Apartments	Tommy Balls
2013	Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa	Irving Zisman	Writer and producer
2014	Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa .5
2014	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Leonardo	Voice
2015	Being Evel	Himself	Producer Documentary
2016	Elvis & Nixon	Sonny West
2016	Skiptrace	Connor Watts
2017	Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine	Himself	Documentary
2018	Half Magic	Father Gary
2018	Action Point	Deshawn Crious 'D.C.' Carver	Writer and producer
2018	Rosy	James
2018	The Great Buster: A Celebration	Himself	Documentary
2019	Polar	Michael Green
2019	Above Suspicion	Cash
2019	We Summon the Darkness	Pastor John Henry Butler
2020	Steve-O: Gnarly	Himself	Guest appearances Direct-to-video
2020	Mainstream	Ted Wick
2022	Jackass Forever	Himself and Irving Zisman	Writer and producer
2022	Jackass 4.5
TBA	The Brandon Novak Story	Himself	Documentary