This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.

Evel Knievel dead at 69.

edited November 2007 in News
Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. 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.

Immortalized 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, Mont., 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 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 federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.

Source: Sports Illustrated News

Comments

  • What!! He was supposed to die in a gigantic fiery explosion...dammit!
  • What!! He was supposed to die in a gigantic fiery explosion...dammit!
    You can't say he didn't try in his earlier days.

    I know little about him, heard his name once before. Sad to hear a stunt legend died. Stunt men are generally awesome and have true balls of steel, possibly titanium.
  • True true, I was just trying to make a joke. (which was probably not the greatest idea) Things like this tend to make me laugh, I am usually not very sad because I did not know that person personally. Death is obviously not a happy thing, but I was expecting him to go out like Steve Erwin did (not the same, just doing something really dangerous).
  • Well I hope they cremate him at least.
  • edited November 2007
    ...but I was expecting him to go out like Steve Erwin did (not the same, just doing something really dangerous).
    I hope you mean that you were expecting him to go out the way you expected Steve Erwin to go out. Erwin should have been eaten by a crocodile or killed by snake bite, and Knievel should have died in a fiery explosion. It's insulting that they died any other way.
    Post edited by Sail on
  • The next time some mom is screaming about how metal and wooden see-saws and swings are too dangerous for kids playgrounds, I'll tell them that Evil Knievel died of natural causes.
  • Sail, I completely agree, why can't people die the way they are expected to, gosh!
  • edited December 2007
    Evil Knievel was awesome. I'm a little older than most folks here so I remember many of his stunts from the mid 70's. They were a really big deal. As a kid I thought he was the coolest. I had an Evil Knievel doll/figure and motorcycle.
    I'll tell them that Evil Knievel died of natural causes.
    LOL, I'm using that.
    Post edited by am_dragon on
  • Man, cystic fibrosis sucks :(
Sign In or Register to comment.