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Ryan Dunn was “just starting to break out on his own. Everyone was really proud of him.” That’s how Philadelphia morning talk show host Preston Elliot, who co-hosts 93.3 WMMR’s The Preston and Steve Show — which Dunn and his Jackass cohorts, many of whom hail from the region, often visited — is reflecting on the late star. (The 34-year-old died early in the early hours of Monday morning when he crashed his Porsche in West Goshen, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. An unidentified passenger was also killed in the accident, which is still in preliminary investigation, but the West Goshen Police Department released a statement that said “excessive speed may have been a contributing factor.”)
The news of Dunn’s passing was first broken on the rock station’s morning program — Elliot reveals to EW that early Monday morning, the station became flooded with emails and texts from people in the area who had gotten word of Dunn’s death. (Elliott confirmed the news with April Margera, the mother of Dunn’s Jackass co-star Bam Margera.) And, tragically, there’s plenty of reason to mourn: Not only was Dunn something of a local hero from his early skateboarding days who was always willing to help out if the station was in a pinch for a celebrity guest spot (“I don’t think he ever said no,” Elliott tells EW), but Dunn was also experiencing some recent professional success, nabbing small roles in indie films and co-hosting a new series on G4 called Proving Ground. But now, the rest of Ground — a show which tested out wild video game and movie stunts in the real world, a perfect fit for the always-game Dunn — may not see the light of day. READ FULL STORY »
