Manny Puig

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Manny Puig
Manny.JPG
Puig in 2005
Born (1955-01-25) January 25, 1955 (age 69)
Cuba
Other namesSharkman, Tarzan
Education Gainesville High School [1]
OccupationWildlife entertainer
Years active1999–present
Website mannypuig.com

Manny Puig (born January 25, 1955) [2] [3] is a Cuban-born American wildlife entertainer who is known for his encounters with dangerous animals such as sharks, black bears and American alligators. [4] He has made frequent appearances on the television shows Jackass and Wildboyz and also on the Animal Planet show Gator Boys. [5] He is also known for hosting Outdoor Channel's "Savage Wild". [6]

Contents

Puig has appeared in numerous documentaries as an animal expert and even appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and on Shark Week.

Early life

Puig was born in Cuba [7] and immigrated to Florida with his mother, where he became interested in wildlife. Living so close to the Florida Keys only increased his interest in animals. In his youth, Puig traveled into the Everglades with only a frying pan and a shotgun. He learned to hunt deer at an early age and started hand-catching small American alligators underwater in his teens. [8]

Career

In the late 1990s, Puig worked with Mehgan Heaney-Grier and Mark Rackley, both in training Grier as a free diver and in filming underwater encounters with animals such as alligators and sharks. [9] Rackley worked as a spearfisherman and underwater videographer. Puig had experience as an animal handler on movie sets [10] and had learned how to ride and handle alligators in their environment. [9] The trio formed a company named Extreme Encounters, and the footage they produced led to the Animal Planet series titled Extreme Contact. [10] The 20-episode series featured the trio in cage-free encounters with sharks, alligators and other aquatic wildlife. [11]

Puig advocates a basic approach to wildlife and denounces the use of safety gear such as cages, protective clothing and diving apparatus. He states that he has a great respect for the Native Americans because of their interaction with the land and their survival skills. His interests also include history, art and geography documentaries. He spends his free time working on sculpting, hand-crafting medieval weapons and hunting tools. [12]

Puig has appeared on the television program Jackass , in Jackass: The Movie , Jackass Number Two , Jackass 2.5 , Jackass 3D , and Jackass 3.5 . In these projects, he is credited as an expert on predatory animals. One of Puig's stunts is featured in the second film, where he dives with Steve-O around hammerhead and other dangerous sharks. Steve-O recalled the segment in his autobiography, stating: "The following day, Chris Pontius and I were scheduled to swim with great hammerhead sharks, accompanied by Manny....with the butt piercing wound still fresh, swimming with sharks might not have been very smart, but Manny wasn't worried about it....In retrospect, the fact that Manny was the arbiter of what was safe and reasonable is hilarious. He hatched and okayed plenty of ideas that were clearly not okay. So you knew if he said no to something, that meant "FUCK NO!" As it happened, Manny had no problem sending us swimming with great hammerheads." [13]

Puig is also featured on the MTV program Wildboyz , where he resumes the role of a predatory-animal expert. Some of Puig's stunts on Wildboyz include having a snapping turtle lock onto his hand. According to Chris Pontius on the special features of one of the Wildboyz DVDs, he heard Puig scream for the first time in his life when he had the snapping turtle bite his hand in the Deep South, United States.

After finishing the second Jackass movie and with the final season of Wildboyz having completed, Puig produced his own film entitled Ultimate Predator. The film shows him interacting particularly with sharks. The film also features adventures with Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius. and Jeff Tremaine. Towards the end of filming Manny left the set due to a confrontation with fellow wildlife expert David Weathers, Manny was quoted as telling him to “treat animals with the respect they deserve”, they eventually settled the dispute.[ citation needed ]

During Discovery Channel's Shark Week in 2003 Puig was profiled for an episode entitled "Diary of a Shark Man". [14]

Puig also appeared on "Feeding Time" during Discovery Channel's Shark Week in 2007.

Puig was featured on the Outdoor Channel show called Savage Wild. The episodes of Savage Wild take place in the Everglades and surrounding environs near Miami, Florida and range from Puig hunting a wild boar with only a rudimentary spear, or carefully maneuvering through the water with a monster alligator, or handling highly venomous wild snakes, such as water moccasins, in their natural environment.

Puig's left middle finger was amputated after a rattlesnake bite. [15]

Filmography

Films

YearTitleRoleNotes
2002 Jackass: The Movie HimselfGuest appearances
2006Ultimate PredatorHimself Direct-to-video
Producer
2006 National Lampoon's TV: The Movie Manny the Gator GuyDirect-to-video
2006 Jackass Number Two HimselfGuest appearances
2007 Jackass 2.5 HimselfGuest appearances
2009Jackass: The Lost TapesHimselfDirect-to-video
Archive footage
Guest appearances
2010 Jackass 3D HimselfGuest appearances
2011 Jackass 3.5 HimselfGuest appearances

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1999The UnexplainedHimself1 episode
1999Run for CoverHimselfTV special
2000-2001Extreme ContactHimself20 episodes
2000–2001 Jackass Himself4 episodes
Guest appearances
2001Deep DiverHimself
2003–2006 Wildboyz Himself12 episodes
Guest appearances
2003–2007 Shark Week Himself2 episodes
2003 MTV Video Music Awards Latinoamérica 2003 HimselfPresenter
2006 Late Night with Conan O'Brien Himself1 episode
2008 Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover HimselfTV special
Guest appearances
2009Savage WildHimselfHost
Writer
2012 Gator Boys Himself1 episode

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References

  1. ↑ Puig, Manny. "Manny Puig - Facebook". Facebook . Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  2. ↑ Cocking, Susan (March 25, 2012). "'Pork Choppers' Take Down Wild Pigs from the Air". The Miami Herald . p. 15D. Wildlife wrangler Manny Puig, 57, of Miami—host of The Savage Wild on the Outdoor Channel, says helicopter hunting is not for him.
  3. ↑ Puig, Manny (January 25, 2020). "Happy Birthday Manny!#Happy Birthday#mannypuig,##outdoorsman". Instagram . Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  4. ↑ Manny Puig- An Evening with a Spearing Guru Freedive Blog. March 12, 2012. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Manny Puig". IMDb.
  6. ↑ Channel, Outdoor (December 6, 2012). "Savage Wild | Outdoor Channel". outdoorchannel.com. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  7. ↑ Cocking, Susan (July 29, 2006). "Primitive fishing presents challenge". The Vindicator . Archived from the original on July 2, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  8. ↑ Dreaming of the Deep: The Life of Manny Puig (Video) Outdoor Channel. 24 July 2014.
  9. 1 2 Nielsen, Kirk (January 15, 1998). "Do Not Try This at Home!". Miami New Times.
  10. 1 2 Tresniowski, Alex (September 8, 1997). "Diving Belle" . Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Extreme Encounters Episodes" . Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  12. ↑ TV Survival Dreaming of the Deep: The Life of Manny Puig (video) Outdoor Channel. 24 July 2014.
  13. ↑ Stephen "Steve-O" Glover, 2011, "Professional Idiot: A Memoir, pp. 133-134.
  14. ↑ Kurr, Jeff (August 12, 2003), Diary of a Shark Man, Shark Week, retrieved January 7, 2023
  15. ↑ "Manny Puig - Steve-O's Wild Ride! Ep #75". YouTube . September 23, 2021. Archived from the original on December 18, 2021. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
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