Evel Knievel dead at 69.

[Daikun]

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 (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/11/30/kneviel.ap)

[Tanooki]

those jumps in heaven have got to be something!

rest in peace, daredevil

[meatwad69]

He seemed to be getting a little bitter towards the end of his life haha - anyone see him in his later interviews?

Regardless, the man is a legend, and reps America well - absolutely insane white guy hahaha =)

RIP Evel.

[Lavenderpaw]

Aw.I have a friend who was a fan,his name was brought up many a time I dare say.Bummer.Well,Rest In Pieces...or,is that Peace?:sweat:

[XOMiss_Samantha]

How sad =[ 69 is much too young these days. I hope he's at least doing some crazy stunts in heaven.
RIP<3

[Ishtar]

Damn. Didn't expect to see him go. I'll always remember him as that stunt driver. Hope he rests in peace.

[unknown hero]

He will always be a legend in my eyes for having the guts to even try the stunts he did, pushing the limits of possibility.

RIP Evel

[Rolling Cloud]

Damn, this stinks! =[

Evel, keep being cool up in heaven!

[Pupmon 4.0]

*sigh* First the maker of Gatorade dies, and now this. R.I.P Evel Knievel

[ElBarto]

To be honest I didn't see this coming. It's like Jackie Chan dying in a car crash and not in a stunt...It's weird...

He was a cool dude

RIP Bro.

[ToOn~g@l]

You know whats wierd is that I was listening to the commentary on Bart the Daredevil last night and they were talking about how cool he was. Crazy man.

Well he was a great legend, I remember seeing his jacket he wore at the Smithsonian. May he rest in peace. :(

[Tay the Cat]

He seemed to be getting a little bitter towards the end of his life haha - anyone see him in his later interviews?

Nah, he was always like that. Ever see his movie Viva Knievel!? That was arrogance at its finest.

But still. He was a great stuntman and lots of people looked up to him, arrogant or not.

Rest in piece, sir.

[Zeonic Freak]

Aww man.

Well the man has been in bad health in the past few years, so yea its been coming for a while.

RIP Daredevil...

[Deadman]

sad. rip evel.

[Kury Wagner]

Times like this you wish you had a time machine. Go back, place a bet on how he'd die. Everyone would place his death on crazy stunts, not diabetes and health issues.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking this lightly. It's crazy, man. Evel Knievel was friggin' awesome.

[purplehairedwonder]

Evel Knievel days in Butte were some of the craziest times in the city - and living an hour away, it was hard not to hear about it. Just shows how many fans he still had. It's a sad story. RIP Evel.

[tucsoncoyote]

It's ironic that Evel Knievel would die like this. After all who here rememebers when he tried to jump the Fountain at Ceasar's Palace? He wiped out so bad that he had broken bones on every part of his body.

Then of course there was his unsuccessful jump at the San Francisco Cow Palace, where he was laid up for months.

and then his Wembley jump just days before his now famous Snake River Canyon Jump. and each and every time Evel crashed you heard about it.

But Evel also had successes too. Like his jump over 18 cars end to end. His 13 bus jump and a few others.

In short here was a daredevil that broke not only records, but also bones, and in fact it's finally ironic that it was his love of drinking and his long slide into nowhere which finally did him in..

in the end, I bet a lot of folks will miss Robert 'Evel' Knievel. But then maybe up in heaven all of his jumps will be so perfect that you won't hear him complain about all the bad jumps as well

So in closing Evel lived his life and in the end, he didn't break his neck.. that's the real irony..he went out quietly without much fanfare..

Which again proves another famous Legend by the name of Greg 'Pappy' Boyington, that "if you show me a hero, I'll prove he's a bum." and in Evel's case.. he was a hero, but in the end, just like the proverbial warrior he really did end up sadly to be a forgotten bum..

kind of sad and Ironic..

Ah well Evel, When you're up in heaven, Have fun jumping from cloud to cloud.. and maybe, you and Howard Cossell can poke fun at each other..

RIP Evel.. we'll miss you..

:coyote:

[Ackar]

Now someone is going after whatever remains of his estate...

PR man wants $100 million from Evel Knievel's estate (http://www.local6.com/news/14762134/detail.html)


Promoter Awarded $13M From Daredevil In 1977

LOS ANGELES -- Of all the bones Evel Knievel broke over the years, the costliest may have been the left arm of a PR man by the name of Shelly Saltman.

Saltman won $12.75 million in damages against Knievel after the motorcycle daredevil attacked him with a baseball bat in 1977 in a rage over a book Saltman had written about the showman.

With interest, the still-uncollected sum has grown to more than $100 million by Saltman's estimate, and he intends to try to collect it.

"We are going hot and heavy after his estate," Saltman told The Associated Press after Knievel died Friday at 69. "What he tried to do to me and how it hurt my family, I'm owed that."

Whether Knievel's estate has that kind of money is unclear.

Knievel's son, Kelly, would not discuss the size of his father's estate or comment on the dispute. The daredevil's longtime friend and promoter, Billy Rundle, declined to discuss the incident in detail. Knievel's widow, Krystal, was not granting interviews.

Although little remembered today, the incident made headlines worldwide when the death-defying motorcyclist approached Saltman in the parking lot of 20th Century Fox on Sept. 21, 1977, and suddenly started swinging a bat. Saltman, then a studio executive, raised his arm protect his head, a move he says doctors told him probably saved his life.

His arm was shattered and is held together to this day with a steel plate and screws.

Knievel, who broke nearly 40 of his own bones during his many motorcycle stunts, served six months in jail and would never again enjoy the public acclaim he had when he tried unsuccessfully to jump Idaho's Snake River Canyon on a jet-powered motorcycle in 1974 -- an event Saltman had promoted.

"I've always felt pity for him," said Saltman, 76. "Because of this foolish act, he ruined his career."

Knievel complained at the time that Saltman's book, "Evel Knievel on Tour," insulted his family and portrayed him as "an alcoholic, a pill addict, an anti-Semite and an immoral person."

Saltman compiled the book from tape-recorded interviews with Knievel and others, and maintains it was an accurate and affectionate, if unvarnished, account of Knievel's life.

"I wrote a book about a man who at the time I greatly admired," he said.

He and Knievel never spoke after the attack, Saltman said, though he said the showman approached him over the years through third parties, expressing remorse and offering to settle the judgment. Saltman said the offers were a "pittance" and he turned all of them down.

The Snake River jump might not even have been the most bizarre of Saltman's promotions. Saltman was also the man behind the scenes at Muhammad Ali's 1976 bout with Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki. The two fought to a draw, with Ali punching and Inoki kicking.

But for better or worse, Saltman knows his name will always be linked with Knievel's.

"My first thought was that I do hope the poor man is finally at peace," he said upon learning of Knievel's death.

:eek:

[tucsoncoyote]

Now someone is going after whatever remains of his estate...

PR man wants $100 million from Evel Knievel's estate (http://www.local6.com/news/14762134/detail.html)



:eek:

Well this does prove one thing about death.. Once you are gone, the vultures come swooping in to pick at your bones.. and it's sad that now we have to see this happen to Evel.. After all before his death, Evel made a lot of money prior to his Snake River Canyon Jump. After his jump and all the problems he had, he in a way ended up a bum and a lowly has been as it seems that he even was bankrupt.. So then I am wondering.. How on earth is this potential plantiff even get Evel's Estate which really is valued at.. zero.

after all Nothing From Nothing leaves Nothing.. as the song goes.

But yep here come Evel's vultures.. to pick at his bones, and this is just barely moments after he's in the graves.. A pity really.

:coyote: