Steve-O
Stephen Gilchrist Glover, known professionally as Steve-O, is an American stunt performer, comedian, television personality, and podcaster. He rose to fame in the early 2000s as a cast member of the MTV reality comedy series Jackass, which showcased dangerous stunts and pranks and led to a successful film franchise.
Following the success of Jackass, Steve-O appeared in numerous spin-offs, including Wildboyz and Dr. Steve-O, and embarked on comedy tours that mixed stand-up with stunt performances. He released a memoir, Professional Idiot, and later built a following through his YouTube channel and podcast Steve-O's Wild Ride!.
Steve-O has been open about his struggles with substance abuse, which led to several legal and health issues in the mid-2000s. After an intervention by his Jackass co-stars in March 2008, he entered treatment and is now an advocate for recovery and animal rights.
Born in Wimbledon, London to a Canadian mother and American father, Steve-O holds Canadian, British, and American citizenships.
Early life and education
Stephen Gilchrist Glover was born on June 13, 1974, in London, to Donna Gay Glover, a Canadian, and Richard Edward "Ted" Glover, an American business executive. He is of English ancestry on his father's side. He has one older sister, Cindy.When he was six months old, the family moved to Brazil, where his father worked as president of Pepsi-Cola's South American division. Glover later recalled that his first words were spoken in Portuguese, and that the family's frequent relocations disrupted his early schooling. They subsequently lived in Venezuela, where he learned Spanish.
By age four, the family had returned to the United States, settling in Darien, Connecticut, and later moving to Miami, Florida. At age nine, the family relocated to London, then to Toronto when he was twelve, and back to London again the following year. He attended the American School in London.
At sixteen, Glover began using drugs such as LSD and cannabis, and later said that he "narrowly graduated" with his high school diploma in 1992. He enrolled at the University of Miami's School of Communication, where he began using the stage name "Steve-O", but left during his sophomore year in November 1993.
After leaving Miami, Glover lived without permanent housing and often stayed with friends. During this period, he filmed his own stunts, including a 1995 jump from a balcony that resulted in multiple injuries, among them broken teeth, a fractured cheekbone, and a concussion.
In 1997, after further struggles with substance use and minor arrests, he was accepted into the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Sarasota, Florida, graduating in 1998.
Career
''Jackass'' (2000–2003)
After completing his training at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in 1997, Steve-O was not selected to join the circus. He instead worked as a clown at a circus based at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop flea market and performed on cruise ships for Royal Caribbean International. During this period, he filmed his own stunts and performances, often distributing VHS tapes of his work to promote himself.In the late 1990s, some of these recordings reached filmmaker Jeff Tremaine, who was developing a stunt-based television project for MTV. Tremaine recruited Steve-O to join the ensemble cast of Jackass, which premiered in 2000. The series, which showcased dangerous stunts and pranks performed by Steve-O and other cast members, quickly became a cultural phenomenon.
Following the show's success, MTV released seven films based on the series: Jackass: The Movie, Jackass Number Two, the direct-to-video Jackass 2.5, Jackass 3D, the direct-to-video Jackass 3.5, Jackass Forever, and Jackass 4.5, with an eighth one in currently production. The theatrical installments — Jackass: The Movie, Jackass Number Two, Jackass 3D, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, and Jackass Forever — were box-office successes.
In 2001, Steve-O 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.
On July 31, 2002, Steve-O was arrested on obscenity and assault charges for stapling his scrotum to his leg, and for being 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, a friend and co-star of Jackass. On May 22, 2003, Steve-O was arrested and jailed while in Sweden due to footage of him swallowing a condom containing cannabis to get it past authorities while flying on a plane. He then regurgitated it live on stage, which he showed in his DVD Steve-O: Out on Bail. Steve-O reached a deal with the Swedish prosecutors and was released on May 27, 2003, after paying a fine of 45,000 kronor.
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.
After ''Jackass'' (2004–2007)
After Jackass ended, Steve-O co-starred with Chris Pontius on MTV's Wildboyz, which lasted four seasons from 2003 until 2006. The two performed stunts and acts with animals, often putting themselves in situations for which they were not trained.In 2005, he became the spokesperson for the Sneaux brand of footwear. Television commercials promoting the shoe company included such acts as Steve-O jumping into garbage, getting his foot bitten by an alligator and drinking rotten milk.
On March 27, 2006, he and Jackass co-star Chris Pontius visited The Dean Blundell Show, a morning show on Toronto radio station CFNY, to promote their Don't Try This at Home tour. He 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 lavish 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 had 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 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 did not appear in the second Jackass movie. Additionally, he appeared with some Jackass alumni in National Lampoon's TV: The Movie.
On February 25, 2008, he 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. He participated in several stunts, and even debuted his rap music video which was executive produced by recording artist D-Jukes, leading to Mike Judge bringing back the duo of Beavis and Butt-Head for the first time in years to criticize it. During the live broadcast, Steve-O was kicked out of MTV studios on the request of executives for his behavior and intoxication.Bipolar disorder diagnosis
On March 9, 2008, after receiving an email from Steve-O that suggested his possible suicide, Steve-O's friends, including co-star Johnny Knoxville, became concerned he was a danger to himself and consulted with physician Drew Pinsky, who told them to get Steve-O to a hospital immediately. He was placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold which was later lengthened to 14 days due to an alleged suicide attempt and he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In a mass e-mail addressed to his friends, Steve-O expressed that he previously had thought of his drug use and bipolarity as a "good thing", but that he now realizes that his drug use was apparently hurting those he loved most. He later stated that his drug use got so bad that he hallucinated an intervention with his friends, humorously stating that he knew he needed help once his hallucinations started urging him to quit drugs.
On June 4, 2008, Steve-O pleaded guilty to felony possession of cocaine. He avoided jail with the successful completion of a 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."