Jackass of all trades

Johnny Knoxville has turned himself into one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood.

16:28 16 September 2004

Johnny Knoxville the star of Jackass, one of the most painful and successful shows in MTV's history, has turned himself into one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood.

Knoxville, already boasting sidekick roles in Men in Black 2 and the slightly less lauded Walking Tall along side ex-wrestler The Rock, appears to have learnt the lesson of hard work quickly, with no less than four major projects on the horizon.

Busier than the Jackass team doctor, Knoxville is reportedly in talks to star in the Miramax-funded Daltry Calhoun, the humorous tale of the head of a golfing empire whose organised life is thrown into disarray, along with his various business interests, when his estranged 14 year old daughter enters his life out of the blue.

The once hotly tipped starlet Juliette Lewis, most recently turning up for a brief cameo in Wilson and Stiller's Starsky and Hutch, will co-star alongside Elizabeth Banks and David Koechner in a film which, coincidentally, is set in Knoxville, Tennesse, the town that gave the man once known as Phillip John Pratt his performing name.

And further bolstering the resurgent credibility of a man who reached an all time career nadir when he agreed to partake in a colonic cleansing session dressed as Father Christmas, Knoxville also signed on to star as one of the hillbilly brothers in the big screen remake of TV classic the Dukes of Hazzard last week.

Appearances in the forthcoming Farrelly Brothers-produced caper The Ringer and skateboard drama Lords Of Dogtown ensure that though he might frequently look like he has just got out of the wrong side of bed following a heavy night burning the midnight oil with the boys, Johnny Knoxville will be one busy beaver for the foreseeable future.