Gunnarson narrowly escaped death in October 1983 during a stunt in which he was handcuffed and chained and nailed into a coffin which was then submerged into the Red River in Winnipeg.
[citation needed] In 1998, Gunnarson appeared in NBC's specials The World's Most Dangerous Magic, where he escaped from a straitjacket while hanging upside down 726 feet above the ground from a trapeze suspended from the Hoover Dam.
He appeared again the following year in The World's Most Dangerous Magic II, where he escaped suspended upside down over a swamp of 130 hungry alligators in the Florida Everglades covered in chicken meat and blood.
One of Dean's personal career highlights was opening for Aerosmith at their CD Release Party of "Nine Lives" in New York City.
[citation needed] Presented in Shenzhen, China by The International Society of Magicians, the world's largest magic organization with over 37,000 members.
He has also been featured in many Ripley's books including a two-page colour spread in "Ripley's-The Remarkable Revealed" pages 130–131, where he was buried alive in 2+1⁄2 tons of wet cement and escaped.
Gunnarson was also the first recipient and only escape artist to ever win the "Houdini Award" presented on the Magic Stars television show in Tokyo, Japan.