Death of Ryan Dunn



Ryan Matthew Dunn (June 11, 1977 – June 20, 2011) was an American stunt performer, television personality, actor, comedian, and one of the stars of the reality stunt show Jackass.

On June 20, 2011, at around 3:30 a.m. EDT, a week before Jackass 3.5 was released, Dunn and Zachary Hartwell, a production assistant on Jackass Number Two, were returning from Barnaby's West Chester, a West Chester bar, in Dunn's Porsche 911 GT3 when Dunn veered off the road and struck a tree, after which the Porsche burst into flames in West Goshen Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Both Dunn, who had turned 34 nine days prior, and 29-year-old Hartwell were killed in the crash. Dunn is buried at Highland Drive Cemetery in Brecksville, Ohio, Hours before the crash, Dunn had posted a photo to his Twitter account of himself and Hartwell drinking at said bar. He was identified in the police report as the vehicle's driver and a subsequent toxicology report showed a blood alcohol level of 0.196 g/dL – more than twice the state's legal limit of 0.08%.

The police report stated "speed may have been a contributing factor in the crash" and preliminary investigations suggested the car had been traveling between 132 and 140 miles per hour (212 and 225 km/h) in a 55 miles per hour (89 km/h) zone. Prior to the drunk driving accident that resulted in his death, Dunn had been convicted for driving under the influence of alcohol, resulting in his completing a treatment program as part of his sentence. "In 2005, Dunn was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and entered a first offender's program that allowed him to clear his record after a certain period of good behavior," according to Patrick Carmody, Chester County Assistant District Attorney.

This page is dedicated to Ryan Dunn.

Legacy
Many celebrities expressed their grief and condolences on Twitter, including Sofia Coppola, Tom Green, Carey Hart, Dwayne Johnson, Tony Hawk, and his Jackass cast members, several singers such as Kings of Leon and Skrillex dedicated their songs to Ryan Dunn in honor of him. On November 28, 2011, MTV aired an hour-long tribute to Dunn, where several details of his life previously unknown to the public were revealed as well as never-before seen stunts he performed. Dunn's parents, sister, friends and both Jackass and Viva La Bam cast mates recalled his early beginnings to final months. The 2013 film Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa is dedicated to him.

Impact
Ryan Dunn's death has heavily impacted all of the Jackass crew, especially his best friend Bam Margera, the series was discontinued (until 2022 with the release of Jackass Forever), with director Jeff Tremaine saying that Jackass will never be the same anymore. Bam Margera has been affected the most among them and he still hasn't recovered even today, his alcoholism has increased a lot, even Bam Margera considers 2012 as the year he lost control of his drinking, he also got bone spurs which forced him to put skating on hold, and he began binge drinking "to kill the boredom". This forced him to ruin his relationship with all of his friends and families where he refuses to go to rehab, it even forced Paramount to fire him from the production of Jackass Forever.