Daredevil Evel Knievel dies at age 69
Friday, November 30, 2007
Daredevil Evel Knievel has died today at the age of 69, according to a family member.
Knievel's granddaughter, Krysten Knievel confirms that he died after his health failed due to diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In 1999 he also underwent a liver transplant after complications from hepatitis C. He was born Robert Craig Knievel Jr. on October 17, 1938 in Butte, Montana.
Knievel will likely be most remembered for a failed stunt he tried to perform in Idaho. He attempted to jump over the Snake River Canyon with a rocket powered motorcycle, which ended in a premature ejection of the parachute and the motorcycle's subsequent fall into the canyon, resulting in minor injuries to Knievel.
"No king or prince has lived a better life. You're looking at a guy who's really done it all. And there are things I wish I had done better, not only for me but for the ones I loved," said Knievel in an Associated Press interview in 2006.
Knievel is survived by four children, ten grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
Knievel retired in 1980.
Sources
edit- "Granddaughter says motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel dead at 69" — Canadian Press, November 30, 2007
- Mitch Stacey. "Evel Knievel Dies at 69" — Associated press, November 30, 2007