EVEL Knievel RIP
Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 2:29 pmEVEL Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, has died at the age of 69.
He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.
Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.
His death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel.
Immortalised in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil", Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.
Although he dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, Knievel always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years. In later years, he still made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products.
Thousands came to Butte, Montana, every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival.
"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel once said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."
His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.
He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.
Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.
His death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel.
Immortalised in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil", Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.
Although he dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, Knievel always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years. In later years, he still made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products.
Thousands came to Butte, Montana, every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival.
"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel once said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."
His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.
