Johnny Knoxville is one of the wildest and most dedicated actors in Hollywood, having destroyed nearly every part of his body for the sake of entertainment.
Although he may have calmed down in recent years, Knoxville has proven that he is still willing to endure whatever kind of pain it takes to complete the stunts of his dreams.
Out of his stuntman career, he has been able to make himself a staple in Hollywood even after the end of his hit franchise, Jackass.
What Is Johnny Knoxville’s Net Worth?
Johnny Knoxville’s net worth is a total of $75 million, most of which he earned from his time with the Jackass franchise.
His stage name comes from his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.
Unlike his parents, a car salesman and a Sunday school teacher, Knoxville had always been extremely creatively driven and was always ready to put on a show.
It was his singer-songwriter cousin, Roger Alan Wade, who inspired Knoxville to go into acting when he gifted Knoxville with a copy of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.
Soon after graduating from South-Doyle High School in 1989, Johnny Knoxville made his way to California in an attempt to start his acting career.
After starring in plenty of commercials and getting a multitude of uncredited background roles, Knoxville would eventually make a name for himself through the creation of his stunt television show, Jackass.
The television show, featured on MTV, was a massive success.
From the television show, decades worth of movies and spin-offs would be made under the Jackass brand.
While Johnny Knoxville doesn’t regret his time with Jackass, age and all the major injuries from his youth are catching up with him.
The road to recovery has been difficult for Knoxville since getting older and having a family, especially with the latest installment in the Jackass series.
Jackass fans have been begging for Jackass 4 and patiently waiting for Johnny Knoxville to agree to one last Jackass film.
However, the production of this movie has been a nightmare and has taken much longer than any of the Jackass members expected.
Knoxville may not be doing the same dangerous stunts and wild roles that he used to, but he can still be found all over Hollywood and in films with other popular celebrities.
He has even found success as a voice actor.
How He Made It In Hollywood
Before Jackass, Johnny Knoxville only really got background roles and commercial acting gigs.
The first notable acting role that Knoxville received was an uncredited role on The Ben Stiller Show, being featured in the same episode as Sarah Jessica Parker.
Audiences could also spot Johnny Knoxville as the College Guy from 2000s summer hit Coyote Ugly.
This was also the first time that he went by his stage name, Johnny Knoxville, instead of his birth name, Philip John Clapp.
Getting fed up with the small roles he was able to scrape together, Knoxville decided to create his own opportunities.
Knoxville had an idea for a show or article where he would test self-defense equipment on himself, so he began pitching the concept to a bunch of magazines.
His idea caught the attention of Big Brother magazine, which was a skateboarding and extreme sports magazine.
The magazine publishers gave Knoxville the chance to record his idea and released his stunts in Big Brother’s Number Two video.
Alongside Jeff Tremaine, Sean Cliver, and Dave Carnie, Knoxville created a pilot using the videos that they had filmed and some footage from Bam Margera’s CKY videos.
Even film director Spike Jonze helped create a pitch for the potential show, which eventually caught the eye of MTV.
After a little work on branding, Jackass was brought to television screens across the United States in 2000 and became a massive hit for MTV.
For as much love as the show received, it got just as much criticism.
By 2007, Jackass was pulled off MTV because of all the young fans who got seriously injured trying to replicate the stunts they saw on the show.
This wasn’t the end for Jackass, but rather the catalyst for the franchise’s second stage.
Creating A Franchise Out Of Jackass
Fans of the Jackass series weren’t satisfied with the seven years of stunts and insane acts of pain that Johnny Knoxville and his crew were willing to put themselves through.
Knoxville and the gang were still young enough to recover from their intense injuries and were rearing for more stunts.
The first project that came after the infamous television series was Jackass: The Movie in 2002.
Knoxville led his misfit crew of thrill seekers through being chased by a bull, dressing up as a mouse and going through hundreds of mousetraps, and even turning themselves into human bowling balls.
Their first movie was a hit among the fanbase, so they released Jackass Number Two in 2006 and Jackass 2.5 in 2007.
There were even bigger stunts in their second Jackass movie and Jackass 2.5 was a documentary on the making of their second movie, starting a new tradition for the franchise.
The first spin-off that the franchise released was Jackass Presents: Mat Hoffman’s Tribute to Evel Knievel in 2008.
Although this spin-off would follow more of the traditional Jackass style, further spin-offs would take a more narrative approach.
Jackass 3D was the third installment of the Jackass franchise and came to theaters in 2010.
For this movie, Knoxville and the gang went with even bigger stunts and larger public displays.
Jackass 3.5 decided to be more than just a documentary and added over an hour’s worth of bonus scenes for viewers to see.
Unlike Jackass 3D, Jackass 3.5 was unrated, which meant that it didn’t need to be censored.
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa was the first of the Jackass franchise to create a story to go along with the stunts they were doing.
Bad Grandpa .5 served as the uncensored version of the film.
Dealing With The Physical Repercussions Of His Stunts
There’s no denying the long-term effects of being a professional stuntman, especially one who has endured such painful scenes as Johnny Knoxville.
His medical bills from Jackass alone have come to $8,663,000.
Throughout the franchise’s run, Knoxville has sustained 16 different concussions that have racked up an impressive total of about $4 million in settlement costs alone.
He has also sustained a major crotch injury, an alligator bite injury, torn his cartilage behind his kneecap, broken multiple bones, gotten stitches, and even had his eye pop out of its socket.
In total, the entire Jackass team has had 79 injuries, 28 broken bones, 36 head injuries, and the alligator bite.
The costs of all these injuries have totaled up to $24 million among all the members.
The most expensive injury that Johnny Knoxville has received was the brain damage which led to a brain hemorrhage while shooting for the final Jackass movie, Jackass Forever.
In the settlement, Knoxville was awarded $2.5 million to help pay for the treatment he’s needed.
The injuries that Knoxville sustained after being knocked out by the 400-pound boxer known as Butterbean caused him to experience long-term vertigo that made it difficult for him to make turns in his car.
Until he was able to find a medication to correct the problem, Knoxville took corners slowly to keep him from getting too dizzy to drive.
Both Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O both realized the ways that filming was going to be more difficult as they aged.
Their bones were easier to break, it took less to knock them unconscious, and took them longer to heal from injuries.
Knoxville knew that he couldn’t do Jackass for the rest of his life because it would simply end his life sooner, and he wanted to be around for his family for a long time.
His Acting Career After Jackass
After the Jackass TV series ended, Johnny Knoxville began taking on a variety of roles across television and film.
Although most of the jobs were small like his role in the pilot of Unhitched, he continued to keep his name appearing in credits.
Knoxville can be spotted as the voice of Hoyt Platter and Peter Sterling in King of the Hill.
Shortly after getting into voice acting, he was offered the role of Dean on The Goode Family and played a kid-friendly parody of himself named Johnny Krill on a 2012 episode of Spongebob Squarepants.
In 2010, Johnny Knoxville played the role of Troy Coangelo in Father of Invention.
His castmates for the dramatic comedy film included Heather Graham, Camilla Belle, John Stamos, Craig Robinson, and Virginia Madsen.
Johnny Knoxville would be a part of another all-star cast when he appeared in Small Apartments, based on the novel of the same name by Chris Millis.
The 2012 cast included Billy Crystal, Matt Lucas, James Caan, Rebel Wilson, James Marsden, and many more.
Nature Calls was released in the same year as Small Apartments and had Johnny Knoxville in the leading role alongside Patton Oswalt.
The outrageous comedy film also starred Rob Riggle, Patrice O’Neal, Darrell Hammond, and Maura Tierney.
Johnny Knoxville got to co-star with Hollywood superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger in the thriller film The Last Stand.
This had been Schwarzenegger’s first role since he starred in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines a decade earlier.
Knoxville was the voice of Leonardo in the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, although the movie wasn’t as well-received as anyone involved with the movie had hoped.
One of Knoxville’s most recent roles has been Cash from the biography Above Suspicion, where he stars alongside Emilia Clarke, Jack Houston, and Sophie Lowe.
Joining The WWE For The Royal Rumble
Johnny Knoxville was the first announced entrant to World Wrestling Entertainment’s Royal Rumble, which was met with a lot of resistance from both professional wrestling fans and Knoxville’s own fans.
Fans of Knoxville were concerned for the 50-year-old star’s safety and lack of wrestling history.
WWE fans were upset that someone with no professional wrestling experience was going to be appearing in the Royal Rumble.
Wrestling fans have been in such an uproar about Knoxville’s announcement that professional wrestlers like Booker T have been speaking up.
Booker T believes that Johnny Knoxville has the star power to bring the Royal Rumble some of the viewers they need to boost numbers, which is ultimately good for other professional wrestlers.
Critics of Knoxville’s participation believe that a full-time professional wrestler should be taking his place and that Knoxville is taking that spot away from someone who is more deserving in their eyes.
When Booker T heard this complaint, he was flabbergasted and explained that nobody owned a spot in the Royal Rumble for any particular reason.
Many professional wrestlers have noticed that bringing legendary stuntman Johnny Knoxville into their scene has brought new viewers or returning viewers who may have watched professional wrestling when they were young.
Johnny Knoxville was able to qualify for the Royal Rumble because of his fight with Sami Zayn on WWE SmackDown.
After Sami Zayn had fought and lost against Rick Boogs, Knoxville ran out to give Zayn the final blow by dumping him over the top rope.
While some fans may be upset that this one move qualifies him for the Royal Rumble, professional wrestlers are excited to see how many views his participation brings in and what laughs he can get from the audience.
Knoxville is ready to prove that he’s down for anything.
Ending The Jackass Series
Jackass Forever is going to be the final installment of the Jackass series, and Johnny Knoxville has decided that it is his time to retire.
All of the concussions that Knoxville has suffered have taken a serious toll on his physical health, his mental health, and his wallet.
While there have already been reports of major injuries coming out of the movie for the cast, Johnny Knoxville has suffered the most serious injuries.
Before the latest movie went into production, Knoxville wasn’t even sure that this fourth movie was ever going to happen.
Even with all the injuries and pain that Knoxville has endured, he still feels lucky to be in as good of a state as he is in.
However, the stuntman and actor fears that one of his injuries could have been the end of him, leaving his kids without their father and his wife without her husband.
All those concussions have landed Johnny Knoxville in therapy because there were times when he didn’t even feel like himself anymore.
During therapy, Knoxville found that he needed to explore why he was doing the stunts he was doing.
However, he didn’t want to explore the thought any further out of fear that it would “break the machine.”
With Jackass Forever scheduled to come out in late October of 2022, he can now explore that topic in his own time.
Because of the toll that the series has taken on him and his entire crew, Johnny Knoxville has decided to retire from Jackass.
This decision was only cemented when trouble began to arise with fellow Jackass member Bam Margera, who would eventually go on to sue Johnny Knoxville, Paramount Entertainment, and MTV.
Johnny Knoxville’s wild hair has grayed over the years and the Jackass franchise is being laid to rest before anyone dies.
The Jackass Forever Lawsuit
A year before Jackass Forever had begun filming, co-creator Bam Margera had been in a rehabilitation facility for his struggles with substance abuse.
Due to previous events, Johnny Knoxville was only going to be willing to film the final Jackass installment with Margera if he was sober.
To ensure that Margera kept up his sobriety, a “Wellness Agreement” was struck between Bam Margera, Johnny Knoxville, Paramount Pictures, and MTV.
He was to take multiple drug tests every day and failing a drug test would cost him his career with the Jackass franchise.
Margera failed one of the drug tests he was required to take and ended up losing his job because he had broken their agreement.
However, Margera felt that he had been coerced into signing the “Wellness Agreement” because the production company had him sign the agreement while he was still attending the rehabilitation center.
In addition, Margera claimed that Paramount Pictures had a doctor Face Time with him to ensure that he took a cocktail of medications.
The medications made Margera feel physically and mentally drained, depressed, and a shell of his former self.
Despite his firing, many of the scenes that remain in the movie are going to feature Margera.
Bam was furious with Johnny Knoxville and the production team, claiming they needed to include him and pay him because he helped create the series in the first place.
Things began to take a violent turn when Margera began threatening to hurt director Jeff Tremaine and his family, including his wife and children.
The director eventually had to get a restraining order against Bam Margera, meaning Margera can’t be within 100 feet of Tremaine for the next three years.
Despite all the drama surrounding the film, Johnny Knoxville is still excited to release his final movie of the Jackass movies.
A Relaxing Future For Johnny Knoxville
Hopefully, all of the pain that Johnny Knoxville has endured for the past two decades has been worth the $75 million net worth this legendary stuntman has managed to amass.
Over the years, Knoxville has put himself in harm’s way for the thrills that it brings him, his crew, and the viewers at home.
Now, he can enjoy a relaxing future with his wife and children where he isn’t going to the hospital nearly as frequently.
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