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R.I.P. evil knievil
1911a1-fan
Member Posts: 51,193 ✭✭
just in old evil just passed away
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/11/30/kneviel.ap/index.html?cnn=yes
CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) -- Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose exploits 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 idiopathic 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.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/11/30/kneviel.ap/index.html?cnn=yes
CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) -- Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose exploits 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 idiopathic 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.
Comments
R.I.P.
Doug
Died in a St. Petersburg, FL hostipal of "pulmanary failure".(sp?)
He was 69 yrs old.
May he RIP...
Bet he is planning a jump over the Pearly Gates right now.....
Evil was my idol, for many years. Same here. I remember as a kid, riding my bicycle...jumping homemade ramps...thinking I was Evil. Broke my left clavical after a hard fall.
He sure was a pioneer doing what he did...an American legend.
may he r.i. one p.
i never jumped much but i did play a few of his motorcycles to death, i can't recall the name, but you pull a zip tab out to power it, and his was the only one that did stunts, and of course the big wheel
I took it MUCH farther...
I (with my own $)bought a "470" husky,folks helped,and tried to jump the garage!![B)] bad move.I was 14 then.I'm 46 now, and i wish i had never tried that "STUNT"...[B)]
btw, it's spelled e-v-e-l
only to the liberals[:)]
May he R.I.P.
Daredevil Evel Knievel dies at 69
Associated Press, Updated 2 minutes ago
CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) - Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose exploits made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.
Knievel death was confirmed by his 21-year-old granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs. He 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 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.
Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump an Idaho 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.
For the tall, thin daredevil, the limelight was always comfortable, the gab glib. Always, he welcomed the challenge whether in sports, at work or play. To Knievel, there always were mountains to climb, feats to conquer.
Even in his later years, Evel Knievel thrilled fans everywhere he went. (Barry Gossage / Getty Images)
"No king or prince has lived a better life," he said in a May 2006 interview with The Associated Press. "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."
He garbed himself in red, white and blue and had a knack for outrageous yarns: "Made $60 million, spent 61. ...Lost $250,000 at blackjack once. ... Had $3 million in the bank, though."
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 *, 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."
He began his daredevil career in 1965 when he formed a troupe called Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Daredevils, a touring show in which he performed stunts such as riding through fire walls, jumping over live rattlesnakes and mountain lions and being towed at 200 mph behind dragster race cars.
In 1966 he began touring alone, barnstorming the Western states and doing everything from driving the trucks, erecting the ramps and promoting the shows. In the beginning he charged $500 for a jump over two cars parked between ramps.
He steadily increased the length of the jumps until, on New Year's Day 1968, he was nearly killed when he jumped 151 feet across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace. He cleared the fountains but the crash landing put him in the hospital in a coma for a month.
Hi son, Robbie, successfully completed the same jump in April 1989.
In the years after the Caesar's crash, the fee for Evel's performances increased to $1 million for his jump over 13 buses at Wembley Stadium in London - the crash landing broke his pelvis - to more than $6 million for the Sept. 8, 1974, attempt to clear the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in a rocket-powered "Skycycle." The money came from ticket sales, paid sponsors and ABC's "Wide World of Sports."
The parachute malfunctioned and deployed after takeoff. Strong winds blew the cycle into the canyon, landing him close to the swirling river below.
On Oct. 25, 1975, he jumped 14 Greyhound buses at Kings Island in Ohio.
Knievel decided to retire after a jump in the winter of 1976 in which he was again seriously injured. He suffered a concussion and broke both arms in an attempt to jump a tank full of live sharks in the Chicago Amphitheater. He continued to do smaller exhibitions around the country with his son, Robbie.
Many of his records have been broken by daredevil motorcyclist Bubba Blackwell.
Knievel also dabbled in movies and TV, starring as himself in "Viva Knievel" and with Lindsey Wagner in an episode of the 1980s TV series "Bionic Woman." George Hamilton and Sam Elliott each played Knievel in movies about his life.
Evel Knievel toys accounted for more than $300 million in sales for Ideal and other companies in the 1970s and '80s.
Born Robert Craig Knievel in the copper mining town of Butte on Oct. 17, 1938, Knievel was raised by his grandparents. He traced his career choice back to the time he saw Joey Chitwood's Auto Daredevil Show at age 8.
Outstanding in track and field, ski jumping and ice hockey at Butte High School, he went on to win the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1957 and played with the Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League in 1959.
He also formed the Butte Bombers semiprofessional hockey team, acting as owner, manager, coach and player.
Knievel also worked in the Montana copper mines, served in the U.S. Army, ran his own hunting guide service, sold insurance and ran Honda motorcycle dealerships. As a motorcycle dealer, he drummed up business by offering $100 off the price of a motorcycle to customers who could beat him at arm wrestling.
At various times and in different interviews, Knievel claimed to have been a swindler, a card thief, a safe cracker, a holdup man.
Robbie Knievel followed in his father's footsteps as a daredevil, jumping a moving locomotive in a 200-foot, ramp-to-ramp motorcycle stunt on live television in 2000. He also jumped a 200-foot-wide chasm of the Grand Canyon.
Knievel married hometown girlfriend, Linda Joan Bork, in 1959. They separated in the early 1990s. They had four children, Kelly, Robbie, Tracey and Alicia.
Knievel lived with his longtime partner, Krystal Kennedy-Knievel, splitting his time between their Clearwater condo and his Butte hometown. They married in 1999 and divorced a few years later but remained together. Knievel had 10 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
Renowned for his death-defying stunts, Knievel has now landed in major medical trouble. He says his doctors give him three to five years to live.
Knievel suffers from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that scars the lungs, replacing the air sacs with scar tissue. As the scars form, the tissue becomes thicker, reducing the lung's ability to absorb oxygen. There is no cure.
"I feel pretty good, but there just isn't enough air on this Earth for me compared to you normal people," Knievel said.
The daredevil joins about 200,000 other Americans with the disease. There is no known cause, but researchers believe it may be caused by a genetic predisposition, previous injury to the lungs, viruses and pollutants. Knievel says he has never smoked, though he did work in a copper mine in Montana before making it big as a stunt entertainer.
While rumors about the daredevil's failing health have been buzzing for a few years, his friend Alma Barry in Twin Falls didn't believe them until Knievel called and asked for a gravestone he left in her care to be shipped to him in Butte.
The white marble marker was created to generate publicity about his Snake River Canyon jump more than 30 years ago. Alma Barry and her family got to know Knievel in the seven years he took to build the ramp and plan the jump. The Barrys owned Volco Builders' Supply and helped him build the ramp and press box. The family became such close friends with Knievel that he asked them to store the giant stone marker.
The Barry family sold its business to Franklin Building Supply a few decades ago and asked that the new managers watch over the marker.
It sat in a stockroom for more than 30 years.
"He said he wasn't doing too well and wanted to be buried in Butte and asked if we could send him the gravestone," Barry said. "It is a very beautiful piece. It had the date he was born and the date of the jump and his image on it and a space for in case he didn't make it over the canyon."
Knievel, 66, sent a truck to pick up the stone, and it is now in Butte.
His biggest payday came when he jumped the Snake River Canyon in September 1974 for $6 million. He says his son, Robbie, may also be planning to do a similar jump in Twin Falls. But he doubts it.
"I worked for seven years on that jump, going to Twin Falls for a month each year and working with engineers," he said. "I don't think Robbie has been there once, so he may say he is going to do it, but he isn't putting in the work."
He wants to be buried next to the grandparents who raised him. Knievel was influenced to become a motorcycle daredevil when they took him to Joey Chitwood's Auto Daredevil show when Knievel was 8. But his grandparents were very much against his career choice.
"They encouraged me not to," he said. But Knievel has no regrets, and he encourages young people to follow their passions, too.
"Follow your dreams, no matter what they are or you'll never amount to anything," he said. "It's better to take a chance in life than to never take a chance. I'm not saying to go and jump a canyon, but you have to take chances. Next time, I'll take more."
The man had some guts, did some dangerous things that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.
Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, Jr. (born October 17, 1938 in Butte, Montana) (died November 30, 2007) is a motorcycle daredevil who has been a household name since the late 1960s, and arguably the most iconic motorbike stuntman of all time.
This is a pic of him, early '70s, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Typical Evel, his Baptism was televised live. [:D]
A legend in his own time.
May he R.I.P.
+1
my childhood hero.......
R.I.P bud...[V]
Jon
Godspeed, you crazy old man.
Ok guys what did he ride?
Harley XR750
quote:Originally posted by select-fire
Ok guys what did he ride?
Harley XR750
Correct,, One BadA** Bike.. He has already jumped the Pearly Gates and St. Peter is wanting to take a lesson on doing wheelies..[:D]
quote:Originally posted by Spider7115
quote:Originally posted by select-fire
Ok guys what did he ride?
Harley XR750
Correct,, One BadA** Bike.. He has already jumped the Pearly Gates and St. Peter is wanting to take a lesson on doing wheelies..[:D]
He's gonna need a bit more power for THAT jump!
Trinity +++
Even his son uses a dirt bike these days.
Leave it to him to die at 69...
Yup! He probly did his share of that![;)][:p][:D]
W.D.
To his family: Our hearts are with you!