David Rainey
Encyclopedia
David "Puck" Rainey is a reality television
personality who first gained fame as a cast member on The Real World: San Francisco
in 1994. A bicycle messenger
during the show's shooting, he became notorious as the second Real World cast member ever to be evicted from the house, due to his increasingly antagonistic relationship with his housemates, most notably AIDS
educator Pedro Zamora
, which is credited with helping to make The Real World a hit show, for which Time
ranked it #7 on their list of 32 Epic Moments in Reality-TV History.
. He and his sister are of partial Swedish descent through their grandfather.
. Rainey clashed with his roommates over his hygiene
, as when Pedro Zamora
complained that he used his finger to scoop peanut butter from a jar after he had used that finger to pick his nose. His roommate Mohammed Bilal complained Rainey tended to not change his socks, but instead covered his feet with more socks to mask the smell, which Bilal contended did not work. His housemates also complained of his lack of consideration for others, and his need to monopolize conversation. Rainey's housemate, Judd Winick
, who is Jewish, was also offended at Rainey's wearing of a T-shirt that depicted four guns arranged in the shape of a swastika
, and his refusal to accede to Winick's request not to wear the shirt (though this confrontation was only revealed in The Real World Diaries, a book published by MTV, and depicted in the 2009 film Pedro
, not the series itself).
One of Rainey's closest relationships in the house was with Rachel Campos. Although their relationship became romantic when they kissed on three occasions, it eventually dissolved when, during a heated argument, he revealed this to the other housemates despite having promised her he would not. Although the others were not surprised at this revelation, Campos saw this as a betrayal of trust.
Rainey's most contentious relationship was with Zamora. Rainey denigrated Zamora's career as an AIDS
educator and mocked his Cuban accent. Winick described Rainey as "obnoxious and homophobic". Zamora, who had AIDS himself, distanced himself from Rainey, and thereby from the other housemates, fearing the stress of his relationship with Rainey was affecting his health. When Zamora threatened to move out, the other housemates voted to evict Rainey instead. Rainey later appeared in subsequent episodes in which he encountered former housemates Cory Murphy, Campos, and Winick, but their meetings typically ended in conflict. In the season finale, he phoned Campos just before she left the house and accused her of harboring ill feelings towards him out of jealousy over his subsequent relationships with other women.
The 1995 reunion show, The Real World Reunion, which assembled the casts from the first four seasons of The Real World, was marked by antagonism between Puck and his former castmates. Though some members of the audience and the other seasons' casts expressed interest or fascination with Puck and his antics, his confrontation with his former roommate, Mohammed, resulted in Puck's distancing himself from them physically, and harsh words from others on the stage, such as second season
cast member Irene Berrera-Kearns, led to him temporarily leaving the studio.
on Road Rules: All Stars
, and competed on Battle of the Sexes, during which he came into conflict with David Edwards of The Real World: Los Angeles
, and married on camera Betty, his fiancee and mother of his son, Bogart. He also made a small appearance in Eminem
's video for "Without Me
".
On March 19, 2010, Rainey and his 8-year-old son were involved in a car accident on Route 79 in San Diego. His son bruised several internal organs, but was released from the hospital by March 24. Rainey, however, sustained fractures to both feet, right hand, neck, sternum and clavicle, and was expected to remain hospitalized for another week. The California Highway Patrol
reported that Rainey was intoxicated at the time of the crash, and would be facing charges of DUI
, child endangerment, and driving without a license. Rainey told RadarOnline, "I had two shots of Jack Daniels, but I ate a sandwich with it. They tested my blood alcohol and it was .03% which isn’t even wet reckless."
On June 19, 2011, Rainey was arrested on suspicion of felony corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, and was held at Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail on $30,000 bail until his July 6 appearance in a San Fernando court.
have compared the character Spanky Ham, a fictional character
in the series, to Rainey.
In Pedro
, Nick Oceano's 2008 film dramatizing Pedro Zamora
's life, Rainey is portrayed by Matt Barr
.
Rainey can also be seen in animated form in "Andy vs. the Real World", a 2002 episode of the animated television series Mission Hill
, in which he gets coffee for an MTV studio executive, who then orders him to move some porta-potties
.
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
personality who first gained fame as a cast member on The Real World: San Francisco
The Real World: San Francisco
The Real World: San Francisco is the third season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships...
in 1994. A bicycle messenger
Bicycle messenger
Bicycle messengers are people who work for courier companies carrying and delivering items by bicycle. Bicycle messengers are most often found in the central business districts of metropolitan areas...
during the show's shooting, he became notorious as the second Real World cast member ever to be evicted from the house, due to his increasingly antagonistic relationship with his housemates, most notably AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
educator Pedro Zamora
Pedro Zamora
Pedro Pablo Zamora was a Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality...
, which is credited with helping to make The Real World a hit show, for which Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
ranked it #7 on their list of 32 Epic Moments in Reality-TV History.
Early life
Rainey was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay AreaSan Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. He and his sister are of partial Swedish descent through their grandfather.
The Real World
On The Real World, Rainey was an eccentric center of attention. In the season premiere he arrived at the house last because he was detained by police for a traffic incident. He incurred many minor injuries while bike riding, and kept photos of them, which he showed to his housemates. In addition to his messenger duties, he enjoyed other bike-related activities, such as Critical MassCritical Mass
Critical Mass is a cycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world. The ride was originally founded in 1992 in San Francisco. The purpose of Critical Mass is not usually formalized beyond the direct action of meeting at a set location and time and...
. Rainey clashed with his roommates over his hygiene
Hygiene
Hygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between...
, as when Pedro Zamora
Pedro Zamora
Pedro Pablo Zamora was a Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality...
complained that he used his finger to scoop peanut butter from a jar after he had used that finger to pick his nose. His roommate Mohammed Bilal complained Rainey tended to not change his socks, but instead covered his feet with more socks to mask the smell, which Bilal contended did not work. His housemates also complained of his lack of consideration for others, and his need to monopolize conversation. Rainey's housemate, Judd Winick
Judd Winick
Judd Winick is an American comic book, comic strip and television writer/artist and former reality television personality...
, who is Jewish, was also offended at Rainey's wearing of a T-shirt that depicted four guns arranged in the shape of a swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
, and his refusal to accede to Winick's request not to wear the shirt (though this confrontation was only revealed in The Real World Diaries, a book published by MTV, and depicted in the 2009 film Pedro
Pedro (film)
Pedro is a 2008 American film about the openly gay, Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality, Pedro Zamora, who became famous as a castmember on MTV's reality television series, The Real World: San Francisco. It was produced by Bunim-Murray Productions, the same company that produces...
, not the series itself).
One of Rainey's closest relationships in the house was with Rachel Campos. Although their relationship became romantic when they kissed on three occasions, it eventually dissolved when, during a heated argument, he revealed this to the other housemates despite having promised her he would not. Although the others were not surprised at this revelation, Campos saw this as a betrayal of trust.
Rainey's most contentious relationship was with Zamora. Rainey denigrated Zamora's career as an AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
educator and mocked his Cuban accent. Winick described Rainey as "obnoxious and homophobic". Zamora, who had AIDS himself, distanced himself from Rainey, and thereby from the other housemates, fearing the stress of his relationship with Rainey was affecting his health. When Zamora threatened to move out, the other housemates voted to evict Rainey instead. Rainey later appeared in subsequent episodes in which he encountered former housemates Cory Murphy, Campos, and Winick, but their meetings typically ended in conflict. In the season finale, he phoned Campos just before she left the house and accused her of harboring ill feelings towards him out of jealousy over his subsequent relationships with other women.
The 1995 reunion show, The Real World Reunion, which assembled the casts from the first four seasons of The Real World, was marked by antagonism between Puck and his former castmates. Though some members of the audience and the other seasons' casts expressed interest or fascination with Puck and his antics, his confrontation with his former roommate, Mohammed, resulted in Puck's distancing himself from them physically, and harsh words from others on the stage, such as second season
The Real World: Los Angeles
The Real World: California is the second season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of several diverse strangers living together for several months, as the cameras follow their lives and interpersonal...
cast member Irene Berrera-Kearns, led to him temporarily leaving the studio.
After The Real World
Rainey made a cameo appearanceCameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
on Road Rules: All Stars
Road Rules: All Stars
Road Rules: All Stars is the first season and original title of the MTV reality television game show, The Challenge. The first season of the show premiered on June 1st, 1998.-Format:...
, and competed on Battle of the Sexes, during which he came into conflict with David Edwards of The Real World: Los Angeles
The Real World: Los Angeles
The Real World: California is the second season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of several diverse strangers living together for several months, as the cameras follow their lives and interpersonal...
, and married on camera Betty, his fiancee and mother of his son, Bogart. He also made a small appearance in Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
's video for "Without Me
Without Me
"Without Me" is a rap song by American rapper Eminem. It was released as the lead single from his fourth studio album titled The Eminem Show in 2002, and re-released on his greatest-hits compilation album Curtain Call: The Hits in 2005....
".
Personal life
Rainey met his future wife, Betty, at a farmer's market in 1998. They had a son, Bogart, and later married on Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Sexes. They later had a second son, Rocco. As of 2008, he was working as a truck driver. As of 2009, the family lives in Alabama, where Rainey makes a living through public appearances and miscellaneous jobs. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening and photography, though he prefers to model, whereas his partner works behind the camera.Legal troubles
In 2003, Rainey was accused of domestic violence, but the charges were dropped. In 2009, Rainey was sentenced to a year in a Los Angeles County jail after pleading no contest to charges of committing battery upon his girlfriend. That same year, he also pleaded no contest to felony possession of ammunition and was placed on 3 years’ probation.On March 19, 2010, Rainey and his 8-year-old son were involved in a car accident on Route 79 in San Diego. His son bruised several internal organs, but was released from the hospital by March 24. Rainey, however, sustained fractures to both feet, right hand, neck, sternum and clavicle, and was expected to remain hospitalized for another week. The California Highway Patrol
California Highway Patrol
The California Highway Patrol is a law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and also acts as the state police....
reported that Rainey was intoxicated at the time of the crash, and would be facing charges of DUI
DUI
DUI is a three letter acronym that may stand for:* Driving under the influence * Democratic Union for Integration — the largest ethnic Albanian party in the Republic of Macedonia* Data Use Identifier...
, child endangerment, and driving without a license. Rainey told RadarOnline, "I had two shots of Jack Daniels, but I ate a sandwich with it. They tested my blood alcohol and it was .03% which isn’t even wet reckless."
On June 19, 2011, Rainey was arrested on suspicion of felony corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, and was held at Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail on $30,000 bail until his July 6 appearance in a San Fernando court.
In popular culture
The creators of Drawn TogetherDrawn Together
Drawn Together is an American animated television series, which ran on Comedy Central from October 27, 2004 to November 14, 2007. The series was created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, and uses a sitcom format with a TV reality show setting...
have compared the character Spanky Ham, a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the series, to Rainey.
In Pedro
Pedro (film)
Pedro is a 2008 American film about the openly gay, Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality, Pedro Zamora, who became famous as a castmember on MTV's reality television series, The Real World: San Francisco. It was produced by Bunim-Murray Productions, the same company that produces...
, Nick Oceano's 2008 film dramatizing Pedro Zamora
Pedro Zamora
Pedro Pablo Zamora was a Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality...
's life, Rainey is portrayed by Matt Barr
Matt Barr
Matthew Jerome "Matt" Barr is an American television and film actor. He is best known for his roles as Mike Fleming in Commander in Chief, Ian Banks in One Tree Hill, Christopher Sullivan in the mystery horror series Harper's Island, and Dan Patch in The CW series Hellcats.-Early life:Matthew...
.
Rainey can also be seen in animated form in "Andy vs. the Real World", a 2002 episode of the animated television series Mission Hill
Mission Hill
Mission Hill is an American animated television series that first aired on The WB in 1999. Although 18 episodes were planned, only 13 episodes were produced. The show was put on hiatus by the WB Network after two episodes due to poor ratings. It returned to the WB in the summer of 2000 but was...
, in which he gets coffee for an MTV studio executive, who then orders him to move some porta-potties
Portable toilet
Portable toilet are simple portable enclosures containing a chemical toilet which are typically used as a temporary toilet for construction sites and large gatherings and events. Most of the portable toilets have black open-front-U-shaped toilet seat with cover...
.