‘JACKASS’ STAR Ryan Dunn, who made Americans cringe and snicker through vulgar stunts in a multimillion-dollar TV and movie franchise, has been killed in a fiery car crash. He was 34.
Dunn, a daredevil whose most famous skits on the ensemble sketch show included diving into a sewage tank and shoving a toy car into his rectum, was driving his 2007 Porsche in suburban Philadelphia when the accident occurred.
The vehicle careered off the road, flipped over a guardrail and crashed into the woods before bursting into flames. A passenger was also killed, and speed may have been a factor in the crash, local police said.
The force of impact shattered the vehicle into several twisted and blackened pieces, leaving the Porsche 911 GT3 unrecognisable except for a door that was thrown from the crash and not incinerated. A 100-foot-long tire skid marked where the car left the roadway.
Both Dunn and his passenger were severely burned. Police said they were able to identify Dunn through his tattoos and hair, but the identity of his passenger was still unknown.
Aside from the ‘Jackass’ TV series and trio of films, Dunn appeared on ‘Viva La Bam’, his own MTV show ‘Homewrecker’, and hosted ‘Proving Ground’ on the G4 cable network.
Dunn also starred in the yet-to-be-released film ‘Living Will’. The film’s website describes Dunn’s character as a “party bum slacker [who] returns from the dead as a mischievous and perverted ghost.”
His longtime friend and fellow Jackass daredevil Johnny Knoxville tweeted, “Today I lost my brother Ryan Dunn. My heart goes out to his family and his beloved Angie. RIP Ryan, I love you buddy.”
In a statement, MTV praised Dunn’s tireless humour and enthusiasm and said he would be missed.
Dunn was born in Ohio and moved at age 15 to Pennsylvania, where he met Jackass co-star Bam Margera on his first day of high school. He was working as a welder and at a gas station when Knoxville, a friend of Margera’s through the skateboarding circuit, asked the crew to allow their videos to be part of ‘Jackass’, which became a hit on MTV and ran from 2000 to 2002.
Perhaps his most famous stunt, in 2002′s Jackass: The Movie, involved inserting a toy car into his rectum and going to an emergency room, where he made up a story that he was in mysterious pain after passing out at a fraternity party. Dunn’s X-ray from the hospital became a popular T-shirt for Jackass fans.
In a 2000 stunt, he dived into a tank at a raw sewage plant wearing flippers, a mask and a snorkel.
A few hours before the 3am crash, Dunn tweeted a picture of himself drinking with two friends. The photo has since been removed.
Autopsies were to be conducted Monday, though it was unclear when the results would be released.
AP
