Daredevil Evel Knievel Dies After Long Illness
November 30, 2007

The legendary daredevil and one-time superstar Evel Knievel faced a challenge that he couldn't jump over when he was forced to face down diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, which ended his life this week at the age of 69. Evel Knievel has suffered from poor health for years and almost died in 1999 from Hepatitis C, when he underwent a liver transplant. The granddaughter of Evel Knievel, Krysten Knievel, revealed today that the daredevil had finally succumbed to the illnesses that haunted him for years and took his life. No official cause of death was given.

Evel Knievel became a cult-hero and, for a while, a household name in the 1960s and 1970s by performing stunts of increasing difficulty. One of the most notable events in the life and legend of Evel Knievel was when he jumped the Snake River Canyon in Idaho on a motorcycle. Evel Knievel made a career of jumping parked vehicles on his rocket-powered bike. As quoted by the BBC, Knievel once said, "They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives."

In 1968, Evel Knievel tried to jump the fountains in front of Caesars Place casino in Las Vegas and crashed his bike, putting him in a coma for almost a month. Evel Knievel came out of the coma and the crash made him an even bigger star. Evel Knievel tried to jump Snake River Canyon in Idaho in 1974 on a rocket-powered bike, but it failed after his parachute opened prematurely and Evel fell into the river. According to the BBC, by the time Knievel retired in 1980, he had broken nearly 40 bones.

Knievel made headlines again recently, even this week, when he settled a lawsuit with Kanye West over his video for "Touch the Sky," which parodied Evel's famous style. Evel Knievel was even dubbed by the Smithsonian, "America's Legendary Daredevil." Robbie Knievel, his son, tried to follow in his father's footsteps in 1989, but the daredevil craze didn't make him as big a star. Evel Knievel retired once in May of 1975 and in October of the same year, but didn't officially stop until 1980, according to MTV. He was also married twice - to Linda Bork from 1959 to 1997 and to Crystal Kennedy from 1999 to 2001. Evel Knievel had four children. We send our condolences to his friends and family.