Death of a Daredevil: Evel Knievel

Evel Knievel, the daredevil motorcycle stuntman who made sensational jumps over cars and double-decker buses in the 1970s and broke dozens of bones in even more sensational crashes, has died. He was 69.

Knievel had been in poor health for several years. He suffered from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung condition, the Associated Press said. He also had a liver transplant in 1999 after he almost died from hepatitis C, a disease that he likely got through a blood transfusion, the news service reported.

Evel Knievel was extreme long before the popularity of the ESPN's ``X Games'' competition. Starting in the 1960s, he went from jumping over pits of live rattlesnakes to leaping over buses and other obstacles. Dressed in a red, white and blue leather jumpsuit with a cape flowing in the air, his jumps attracted hundreds of spectators. As his popularity and fame grew and his stunts became more spectacular, the hundreds became thousands and millions watched on television.

``With America in the midst of the Vietnam War quagmire, the country was looking for a hero, and Knievel's heroic, death- defying feats and his popular messages to the world's youth, promoting abstention from drugs and a healthy lifestyle with positive mental attitude quickly transformed him into a national icon,'' the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum said in its tribute to the daredevil.

Famous Stunts

Knievel's most famous stunts included an attempted jump on a jet-powered ``Skycycle'' over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho on Sept. 8, 1974; the New Year's Day 1968 jump across fountains in front of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which left him in a coma for a month; and a jump over 13 double-decker buses at London's Wembley Stadium in 1975, when he broke his pelvis.

``I think about God a lot more than ever, though I used to ask him, `Help me make a good jump,''' he told USA Today earlier this year, as he breathed through oxygen tubes and a pump installed in his abdomen pushed morphine and synthetic heroin into his system.

``I'm awfully tough to get along with, but I'll tell you what: I am a good person,'' he said. ``I wish there was such a thing as reincarnation.''

Robert Craig Knievel Jr. was born on Oct. 17, 1938, in Butte, Montana, and raised by his grandparents from the age of 6. When he was 8, Knievel saw Joey Chitwood's Auto Daredevil Show, and he later credited it as the impetus for his career, according to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

First Crash

Knievel got his first motorcycle at the age of 13, and crashed it into a neighbor's garage. He began his professional daredevil career in 1965, forming a troupe called ``Evel Kievel's Motorcycle Daredevils,'' with him riding through walls of fire.

One of his early sponsors wanted him to use the name ``Evil.'' He decided on ``Evel'' because he didn't want an image of a bad person.

Knievel went from international popularity to obscurity, and then in the 1990s he returned to the limelight with TV commercials and TV specials retelling his life.

Knievel reached a settlement this week with Grammy Award- winning hip-hop singer Kanye West over a parody music video that Knievel claimed damaged his reputation and trademarks.

Details of the settlement weren't disclosed in a notice dismissing the case filed in federal court in Tampa, Florida. Both parties agreed in July to mediate an end to the dispute, triggered by West's February 2006 video for ``Touch the Sky.'' West's character in the video, ``Evel Kanyevel,'' crashes while trying to jump a canyon in a rocket.

Knievel's youngest son, Robbie, followed in his dad's daredevil stunts. The two were estranged for years until last summer.

``I'm the only one in the family who stood up to him,'' Robbie, 44, told USA Today.

Knievel's survivors include another son, Kelly, daughters Alicia and Tracey, 11 grandchildren and ex-wives Linda Knievel and Krystal Kennedy, the former Florida State golfer who was his caregiver and companion, according to USA Today.

Via bloomberg.com