1 hour ago
LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) ? Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, who wowed and terrified crowds with his daring long-distance leaps and equally spectacular falls, died Friday at the age of 69, his website said.
The site gave no cause of death for Knievel, the man who survived death-defying stunts in the 1960s and 1970s, notably a 1974 jump over the Snake River Canyon in the northwestern state of Idaho with a rocket-propelled bike.
But US media said Knievel, who lived in the southeastern state of Florida, died of lung failure. He also suffered from diabetes and liver disease.
Knievel gained worldwide fame as the man who would dare rev up his bike to jump over long lines of buses and cars in thrilling spectacles which drew tens of thousands of spectators.
Born Robert Craig Knievel in 1938 in northwest Montana, he began his thrill-seeking career as a teenager.
After a few brushes with the law while still a young man, including being involved in break-ins and hold-ups, he launched his professional motorcycling career in 1965.
"Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Devils" shows drew the crowds as Knievel, dressed in white leather decked with stars, won a generation of young fans with his daring exploits.
Among his most well-known stunts was a failed bid in 1967 to jump across the fountains in the Caesar's Palace casino in Las Vegas, which left him with 40 fractures and in a 29-day coma.
Knievel finally retired at the end of the 1970s, without achieving his dream of leaping the Grand Canyon on his bike, as the authorities refused permission to install the necessary ramp in the national park.
Despite his international fame, Knievel was modest when not astride a motorcycle.
"I do not like the word 'hero,'" he once told an inteviewer. "It's the most overused, undeserving word. Too many people think the wrong people are heroes ... people who stand in the way of harm or conflict and give their life without question for the good of others -- they are the real heroes," he added.
"I was good at riding a motorcycle and a pretty good businessman. Not a hero."
Knievel is survived by his second wife Krystal Kennedy and his children Kelly, Tracey, Alicia and Robbie, who is also a motorcycle stunt rider.
His home town of Butte, since 2002, is host to the "world's greatest celebration" for the "World's Greatest Daredevil," according to his site. The annual three-day event in the last weekend of July draws crowds of 50,000, including stuntmen from around the world.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g-urT4zmWdZTvaxSNrhidH1iFAswI don't see this anywhere. I hope i'm just not missing it.
RIP
Author