Johnny Knoxville Net Worth

Philip John Clapp, known as Johnny Knoxville, knew he wanted to be an actor. Leaving for Los Angeles right after high school, he realized that big breaks didn’t come easy. He got a few commercials and bit parts on The Ben Stiller Show, Desert Blues, and Coyote Ugly.

Big Brother

To achieve fame, he began writing and pitching articles to magazines. One such pitch to Jeff Tremaine’s skateboarding magazine, Big Brother, was his lucky break.

Johnny Knoxville, inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo journalism, came up with the idea of testing equipment, like pepper-spraying himself and being shot while wearing a bulletproof vest. This interested Termaine enough to have him put it in his Number Two Big Brother video in 1998. And, Jackass was born.

Jackass

The Number Two video also featured Jason “Wee Man” Acuna, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Dimitry Elyashkevich, Rick Kosick, and Sean Cliver, all of whom would later work on Jackass.

Tremaine and director friend Spike Jonze began working with Knoxville to develop a show featuring his stunts and pranks. At the same time that Knoxville was testing crazy stunts, skateboarder Bam Margera and friends in Pennsylvania were filming similar stunts at what they called Camp Kill Yourself. Tremaine flew Margera to LA to join the team.

Tremaine shopped the show’s premise, and a bidding war pursued between MTV and Comedy Central. MTV won, offering Tremaine a half-hour weekly show. Johnny Knoxville, who came up with many of the stunts, was listed as an executive producer.

To round out the team, Tremaine asked Steve-O, who had been filming stunts as a clown in Florida, Ehren McGhehey, an extreme stuntman, and Preston Lacy, a friend of Knoxville’s, to join the cast.

The  MTV reality stunt show Jackass on October 1, 2000. The second show gained MTV’s highest ratings ever for a Sunday night show, getting 2.4 million viewers. Viewers loved such dangerous stunts as riding office desks down ramps, jousting on BMX bikes, sledding in shopping carts, and riding skateboards off diving boards.

Jackass only ran for three seasons due to both MTV and the censors wanting more control of the show and Knoxville, Jonze, and Tremaine fighting against that.

Jackass Controversies

The stunts performed on Jackass were extremely dangerous, so each show was preceded by a warning not to try this at home. Still, several people died or sustained injuries, blaming the show for inspiration. As a result, MTV stopped showing Jackass before 10:00 pm.

Viva La Bam

Margera would have a spin-off show on MTV titled Viva La Bam. Johnny Knoxville made guest appearances, and the show ran for five seasons.

Jackass Film Series

Because Jackass ended so soon, Knoxville felt its time wasn’t truly over. Between 2002 and 2022, there were ten Jackass films: The Movie, Jackass Number Two, Jackass 2.5, Jackass Presents: Mat Hoffman’s Tribute to Evel Knievel, Jackass 3D, Jackass 3.5, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.5, Jackass Forever, and Jackass 4.5.

Jackass Television Specials

Jackass also has had several television specials over the last 22 years, including Jackass Backyard BBQ, Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover, A Tribute to Ryan Dunn, Jackass Shark Week, and Jackass Shark Week 2.

New Jackass Series

Based on the success of the Jackass Forever movie, Paramount+ has announced a new Jackass series is in the works.

Non-Jackass Movies

Johnny Knoxville has appeared in several movies outside the Jackass franchise. He appeared with Dwayne Johnson in Walking Tall and had roles in Men in Black II, A Dirty Shame, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Lords of Dogtown, The Last Stand, and Skiptrace. Knoxville also was the voice actor for Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2014.

Wrestling Career

In 2008, Johnny Knoxville made his WWE debut when he wrestled The Great Khali. He was also a guest star on the October 2010 episode of RAW. In January 2022, Knoxville appeared in WWE’s Royal Rumble but was defeated by Zayn.

Knoxville confronted Zayn on the February 25, 2022 episode of SmackDown, wanting a chance at the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Instead, Zayn refused a match but attached Knoxville in the ring.

The two appeared at WrestleMania 38 in an Anything Goes match. Knoxville called in his friends Chris Pontius, Wee Man, Jeff Tremaine, Jasper Dolphin, and Compston “Dark Shark” Wilson to help him defeat Zayn.

What is Johnny Knoxville’s Net Worth?

Johnny Knoxville’s net worth has grown substantially over the last ten years. He earned $5,000,000 for his role in Walking Tall alone. The Johnny Knoxville net worth in 2022 is estimated to be $90 million.

Some think Jackass may have increased the Johnny Knoxville net worth by as much as $171 million. After all, the first Jackass movie only cost $5 million to make, but it made $60 million in the US alone.

Who is Johnny Knoxville?

Johnny Knoxville was born Philip John Clapp in Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 11, 1971. He is the son of Phillip, a tire/car salesman, and Lemoyne, a Sunday school teacher. Johnny Knoxville, known as PJ to his family, has two older sisters. He went to South Young High School, graduating in 1989. Johnny Knoxville immediately left Knoxville, heading west to be an actor.

Johnny Knoxville’s Personal Life

Johnny married his first wife, Melanie Lynn Cates, in May 1995 in an Elvis chapel in Las Vegas. The couple has one daughter, Madison Clapp. They separated in 2006, and the divorce became final in 2009.

Johnny and his future wife, Naomi Nelson, announced they were expecting a child in 2009, and their son, Rocko, was born that December. The couple married in 2010 and welcomed their second child, a daughter named Arlo, in 2011. Johnny Knoxville filed for divorce from Naomi in June 2022.

Fun Facts About Johnny Knoxville

• Knoxville, Spike Jonze, and Jeff Termaine own a production company titled Dickhouse Productions.
• Johnny attended the famed Pasadena School of Dramatic Arts (but dropped out after six weeks).
• Jessica Simpson claims to have had an emotional affair with Knoxville while filming Dukes of Hazard (and still married to Nick Lachey).

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