Early life
Steve-O was born on June 13, 1974 in London to an American father and a Canadian mother. His family was based in England for many years due to his father's presidency of the South American division of Pepsi-Cola. During his childhood Steve-O lived in a number of countries, including Brazil - speaking his first words in Portuguese - Venezuela, and Uganda, where he spent 2 years before returning to the United States. His first hometown in the United States was Darien, Connecticut at the age of four. He moved to Miami two years later. When he was nine his family returned to London. He then spent three years in Canada before returning to London once more. Steve-O graduated from Leggett Valley High School in 1992 before moving to the U.S.He attended the University Of Miami but dropped out after one year due to poor grades and lack of interest in school. He then attended and graduated from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. After graduation he was not selected to join the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, but worked as a clown in a circus at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop flea market. He filmed his stunts, including his clown performances, throughout this period.
Like fellow Jackass star Bam Margera, Steve-O is also an avid heavy metal fan. He has a tattoo of an inverted Christian cross on his left shoulder and a tattoo of an Ichthys with the word "SATAN" in it on his right shoulder.
Jackass and tours (2000-2003)
While performing in the flea market circus, Steve-O began sending videos of himself to Big Brother Magazine editor and future Jackass director Jeff Tremaine. Tremaine recruited Steve-O for MTV's television series Jackass, which became an instant hit. From this popularity, MTV decided to release three movies based on the series: Jackass: The Movie (2002), Jackass Number Two (2006) and direct-home release Jackass 2.5 (2007). Both Jackass: The Movie and Jackass Number Two became box office hits. In 2001, he released Don't Try This at Home on DVD, which contained material MTV censored. It went on to sell 140,000 copies. He toured promoting the DVD doing stunts, which was filmed and released as Don't Try This at Home Volume 2: The Tour The tour gained national attention after Steve-O was arrested on July 31, 2002 in Los Angeles on obscenity and assault charges for stapling his scrotum to his leg, and for beating a principal to a second-degree battery, during a performance at a nightclub in Houma, Louisiana on July 11, 2002. After several delays, in March 2003 Steve-O made a deal with Louisiana prosecutors placing him on supervised probation for one year, requiring him to make a charitable donation of $5,000 to a shelter for battered women and children and forbidding him from ever performing in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana again.In 2003, Steve-O toured Europe with Bam Margera. On May 22, 2003 Steve-O was arrested and jailed while in Sweden due to a comment he made during an interview about smuggling drugs into the country, remarking that he swallowed a condom containing cannabis to get it past the authorities. Steve-O reached a plea bargain with the Swedish prosecutors and was released on May 27, 2003 after paying a 45,000 Kronor (about 6,700 dollars) fine. As part of the plea bargain Steve-O admitted to possessing one ecstasy tablet and five grams of marijuana, although he claimed he had no knowledge of where the ecstasy came from. The Swedish arrest was included in the third installment of the DVD series titled Steve-O: Out on Bail.
Two months later on July 19, 2003, Steve-O was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct for urinating on potato chips in public during a Lollapalooza tour concert in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. Steve-O claimed he was kicked off the tour by Lollapalooza producers because of the incident. Steve-O was again seen urinating in public at the March 5, 2006 Key Club Party for the Oscars, urinating on the red carpet outside the club and then stripping off to his "birthday suit."
After Jackass (2004-2007)
After the Jackass show ended, he co-starred with Chris Pontius on MTV's Wildboyz, which lasted a few seasons until 2006. The two performed stunts and acts with animals, often putting themselves in situations for which they are not trained.In mid 2005, Steve-O launched his own shoe company called Sneaux Shoes. Television commercials promoting the shoe company include such acts as Steve-O jumping into garbage, getting his foot bitten by an alligator and drinking rotten milk. His slogan is "They're darn good shoes."
On March 27, 2006, Jackass co-stars Steve-O and Chris Pontius visited The Dean Blundell Show, a morning show on Toronto radio station CFNY (102.1 The Edge), to promote their "Don't Try This At Home" tour. Steve-O urinated on the floor and performed a stunt called "Unwrapping the Mummy" all in front of a live studio audience. Hosts Dean Blundell, Jason Barr, and Todd Shapiro were suspended for the week following the appearance, after many complaints. In April 2006, Steve-O later sued manager Nick Dunlap and attorney Jason Berk accusing them of lying to him to fund their lifestyles.
On July 18, 2006, Steve-O became a late contestant on the British reality show Love Island broadcast on ITV from Fiji in an effort to boost ratings. Despite stating he has stopped drinking, he asked for beer while on the show. On July 19, 2006 he abruptly left Love Island because he was not allowed the beer and chocolate which he had requested.
In November 2006, he went on a drug binge after being misdiagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a serious heart condition. He was later examined by heart specialists who concluded he was in good health.
In 2007, Steve-O starred in his own television show called Dr. Steve-O on the USA Network. In the show, he helped make his guests cool and "de-wussify" them. That same year he appeared in Jackass 2.5, which mainly consisted of material that didn't appear in the second Jackass movie. Additionally, he appeared with some Jackass alumni in National Lampoon's TV: The Movie.
On February 5, 2008, Steve-O appeared on The Howard Stern Show with Howard Stern, Robin Quivers and Artie Lange on Sirius Satellite radio to promote his upcoming rap album Hard As a Rock. Another mix-CD released by Steve-O is called The Dumbest Asshole In Hip Hop.
Psychiatric problems and rehab (2008)
On February 23, 2008 Steve-O joined the rest of the Jackass crew for the Jackass MTV 24 Hour Takeover, which promoted JackassWorld.com. During the live broadcast Steve-O was kicked out of MTV studios on the request of executives for his behavior and intoxication. Eventually, he was allowed back in the MTV Studios.On March 9, 2008, Steve-O's friends, including co-star Johnny Knoxville, physically removed him from his house and forced him to check into Thalians Mental Health Center due to ongoing drug abuse problems. Steve-O was placed on a 72 hour psychiatric hold which was later lengthened to 14 days due to an alleged suicide attempt. In a mass e-mail addressed to his friends, Steve-O expressed that he previously had thought of his drug abuse and bipolarity as a "good thing," but that he now realizes that his drug abuse was hurting those he loved most.
On June 4, 2008, Steve-O pleaded guilty to felony possession of cocaine. He avoided jail by the successful completion of his treatment program. In July, after 115 days of sobriety, Steve-O announced he was "back in the loony bin". He returned to the mental institution, he said, because "I've had horrible mood swings and severe depression. My brain is fucked up from using so much cocaine, ketamine, PCP, nitrous oxide, and all sorts of other drugs."
Post-rehab (2009-2010)
In March 2009, Steve-O was on the 8th season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Lacey Schwimmer. After the first week, he complained of pinched nerves and back spasms and did not compete in the second week after injuring his back further by falling on his microphone pack during dress rehearsal. The judges based their scores on his performance at the dress rehearsal. He was eventually eliminated in the sixth week of the competition.On May 3, 2009, MTV premiered a documentary titled Steve-O: Demise and Rise about how his life was affected by the use of drugs and alcohol. The show featured home-made video footage of Steve using drugs and vandalizing his apartment. In an August 2009 interview with Johnny Knoxville for The Times-Picayune, Knoxville on the topic of Steve-O's recovery and rehabilitation said "He's taking to sobriety like he took to drugs and alcohol, I'm very proud of him. I think we'll see him doing some stuff here really soon. As a matter of fact, I know we are." And later stated "Something's coming. We're pretty excited". Later, he added: "I think it'll be a big year next year, but I don't want to talk about it yet."
Then in January 2009, Steve-O announced on his website the release of a new DVD titled Steve-O: Pounding Out Randoms, of which only 1000 copies have been made.
Steve-O will be part of Jackass 3D, the third installment of the Jackass series. The movie is in 3D and started production on January 25, 2010. In December 2009, Paramount issued a press release that it will be released October 15, 2010.
In late May 2010, Knoxville has stated that Steve-O's sobriety is at its best and “There is no beer on set this time around even if some of us wish there was”. He also said “And to be honest it's going great. Everyone has had different injuries throughout which is a good sign and Steve-O is probably getting the best footage out of everybody. He is really going for it. He wants to prove to everyone he can do these stunts sober. It's been two years since he had a drink now. Everyone has been real supportive of him.”
TV, film, and releases
TV- Jackass (TV series) (MTV, 2000–2002)
- Wildboyz (MTV, 2003–2006)
- Totally Busted (Playboy TV, 2004–2006)
- Blind Date (One episode)
- Love Island (ITV, 2006)
- The O.C (One Episode, 2006)
- 24 Hours with... (ITV, 2006)
- Dr. Steve-O (USA Network, 2007–2008)
- Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover (MTV Special, 2008)
- Dancing with the Stars (ABC, 2009)
- Steve-O: Demise and Rise (MTV Special, 2009)
- Jackass: The Movie (2002)
- Blind Horizon (2004)
- Jackass Number Two (2006)
- Jackass 2.5 (2007)
- National Lampoon's TV: The Movie (2007)
- The Dudesons Movie (2008)
- Jackass 3D (2010)
- Don't Try This At Home - The Steve-O Video Vol. 1 (2001)
- Don't Try This At Home - The Steve-O Video Vol. 2: The Tour (2002)
- Steve-O: Out on Bail (aka Don't Try This At Home - The Steve-O Video Vol. 3: Out on Bail) (2003)
- Steve-O: The Early Years (2004)
- Steve-O: Gross Misconduct (2005)
- Steve-O: Pounding Out Randoms (2009)
- Hard as a Rock
- The Dumbest Asshole In Hip Hop (April 24, 2008, West Coast Madness Records)
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