A tall, dark-haired and conventionally attractive performer who jump-started his career on a program that was anything but conventional. "Jackass" (MTV, 2000-01) creator, host and star Glory (so named for his Tennessee hometown) took the daredevil's path to fame. A practical joker from his early childhood, Knoxville (then known as P.J. Clapp) took the leap from faking a report card to show all Fs (unlike his real honors-worthy grades) and spreading rumors of his own social disease (with a little help from his own father) to allowing himself to be purposely hit by a car and testing the dependability of a bulletproof vest by shooting himself with a .38.

Knoxville sought to make a living from his unfathomable pranks and approached Big Brother magazine editor Jeff Tremaine in an effort to land a job writing a column about his wacky stunts. Instead Tremaine convinced the daredevil to videotape his antics, which appeared in all their glory on the "Big Brother Video Trilogy", an underground cult hit. As word spread of Knoxville's strange pastime, more commercial venues showed an interest; reportedly he was offered a spot on "Saturday Night Live" (NBC) and was the object of a bidding war between Comedy Central and MTV.

In the end, MTV won out and "Jackass", a series co-created by Knoxville, Tremaine and Spike Jonze was born. Despite stern and very clear warnings both aural and written that no stunt performed on the show was intended for mimicking and that any tapes of stunts sent to "Jackass" producers would be discarded without viewing, a few young fans of the series took to reenacting antics, choosing potentially hazardous tricks involving moving cars and barbecues rather than the disgusting but relatively harmless sketches incorporating feces and athletic supporters. Resulting injuries saw MTV and the cast and crew of "Jackass" under fire from parents' groups and even Senator Joseph Lieberman. Despite these attacks, MTV chose not to cancel the series, though Knoxville himself pulled the plug in the fall of 2001, explaining that "with this type of comedy, people become inured to the shock value after a while."

Though "Jackass" would be no more, Knoxville had no plans to slip out of the spotlight. Having made his feature film debut in 2000's "Coyote Ugly", he followed up with a supporting role in 2001's "Life Without Dick" (aired on Encore in lieu of theatrical release). 2002 saw him take on his first lead with a role in Barry Sonnenfeld's comedy caper "Big Trouble" (pushed back from its original 2001 release). That same year he would show some surprising versatility with a role in the period drama "Deuces Wild" and was featured as an alien in the anticipated summer sequel "Men in Black 2". Later that year, he played himself in the role feature comedy "Jackass" (2002), bringing the role that made him famous to the big screen.