When normal people get injured, they care about their well-being, but a laborer is worrisome towards his career. After all, most of us require our physical abilities in our work and profession, so; it is not entirely wrong to think like that. Many Gold Rush may remember the name of James Harness. He may have been part of the hit Discovery series for a brief time, but his drive of working through pain and injury is still fresh on our minds till today.
So, what happened to Gold Rush star, James Harness? Is James Harness dead or alive? Find out his entire life bio as well, along with his net worth and married life right here.
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Is James Harness Dead or Alive?
James Harness, unfortunately, is dead. He died sometime back on July 3, 2014, after suffering a stroke at the age of 57. James Harness lived a long life in pain after a vehicular accident from around ten years before his appearance in Gold Rush left him with a permanent spinal injury.
Caption: James Harness from Gold Rush is dead
It is unclear as to more details on James Harness’ death, but Todd Hoffman posted about it all in his Facebook page; the news of his death was also announced in Gold Rush, where all of the Todd Hoffman’s crew gathered and had a moment.
James Harness’ Long Struggle with Injury
All we know about James Harness’ condition is that it came from an accident where he was rear-ended by another vehicle. He was not financially stable enough to afford the appropriate surgery and other treatment methods. So James Harness lived through the massive pain, which affected his work mostly.
Caption: James Harness died in 2014
He was barely making ends meet when he met Todd Hoffman and his family. He knew then for four good years where he did a lot of mechanic work for them until they gave him a chance to be on their crew to mining. Before this, Harness had no experience in mining whatsoever. However, he was an able mechanic who took pride in his ability to fix anything mechanical that comes his way.
Why James Harness Left Gold Rush?
Despite only appearing in season 1 and 2 of the show, we could see him work around the site through the pain. In fact, he went so far, pushing his body to the limit in season 1 that in one episode, his legs entirely gave up working. It was not all too bad as that passion was precisely what caught the eyes of Boston Medical Center. Impressed by his story, they offered him a surgery-free of expense.
Caption: James Harness’ legs shut down from pain due to injury
However, when returning to season 2, James Harness did not appear to have recovered at all. He still was not able to perform and even output as much as he could in season 1. The decision to take off James Harness was also a subject of Gold Rush season 2 trailer, but they kind of made it seem like he would be cut off after trying to steal some gold from the crew.
Todd Hoffman’ Relationship with James Harness
Todd Hoffman gave James Harness odd jobs and was the one to bring him into his crew, so you would think that James Harness and Todd Hoffman share a good relationship. However, Todd Hoffman did fire James in the end. On the other hand, James Harness, also after leaving Gold Rush, went on to attack the show’s authenticity. Since reality shows like Gold Rush are always under fire for being scripted, it was a pretty huge deal.
“It truly is not the way I remember it, and it distorts my memories… I get mad because it’s different from what I remember. The real important things I feel should have been in there weren’t.” the former Gold Rush star said, “For every 40 hours of filming, you might see two minutes of it. And sometimes it’s what you leave out that’s important.”
James further said that as unbelievable as it was to see Todd Hoffman fire him, none of it was done on camera. The clip that viewers got to see was edited for dramatic purposes. Todd Hoffman would later claim that the actual reason he had to let Harness go was due to “excessive absences” and then further say Harness addicted to pain medications.
Despite all of this, Todd Hoffman still was respectful when addressing the death of his friend.
Caption: Todd Hoffman on James Harness death
“He was a great guy and mechanic. Thankful to have gotten to know him for the short time that I did.” He wrote, “James fought some hard things in his life. He had so many plates and screws in his body from serious car accidents.”
James Harness Net Worth
We should not undersell James Harness for being a reality star for a lowly brief time. It is no easy feat to be able to become a reality star who has done much less sport a net worth of millions. However, we have to consider James Harness’ injury when he was alive. He was planning to apply for disability before he got the opportunity to work in mining with Todd Hoffman.
Caption: James Harness’ net worth and bio
He became a fan favorite with just two seasons in the course of which he must have certainly had a decent salary and net worth. Unfortunately, James Harness’ net worth, for the time being, is still under review. Now that he is dead, we doubt we will have James Harness’ net worth anytime soon too.
James Harness Bio & Married Life
Relatively, we know little to nothing when it comes to James Harness. The man was born on October 3, 1956, and lived in Oregon, the USA for most of his life. We do not know any more about his early life as well as his married life because he kept a lot part of his personal life private. Well, if he was married, we would like to pay our respects to his wife and children. Even if he is not, we share regards to any else family he had.
