Racerchaser
11-30-2007, 05:54 PM
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - Daredevil Evel Knievel, who dodged death in a series of spectacular motorcycle leaps and crashes that made his name synonymous with showmanship, died on Friday at the age of 69, according to a message on his Web site. The site read simply "Robert Craig 'Evel' Knievel October 17, 1938 - November 30, 2007."
He had been ill for some time.
In his heyday, the tempestuous showman dressed like a superhero for his jumps, wearing a red, white and blue leather jumpsuit with a cape and cane, his hair sculpted back in a tall pompadour.
Knievel's greatest stunt turned out to be a failure when on September 8, 1974, he tried to ride a rocket-powered motorcycle across the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.
With a nationwide pay-per-view television audience watching, the parachute deployed when Knievel's Skycycle X-2 was only about two-thirds across, sending the cycle into the canyon wall. It landed partly in the river, but Knievel walked away with minor injuries.
He had been ill for some time.
In his heyday, the tempestuous showman dressed like a superhero for his jumps, wearing a red, white and blue leather jumpsuit with a cape and cane, his hair sculpted back in a tall pompadour.
Knievel's greatest stunt turned out to be a failure when on September 8, 1974, he tried to ride a rocket-powered motorcycle across the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.
With a nationwide pay-per-view television audience watching, the parachute deployed when Knievel's Skycycle X-2 was only about two-thirds across, sending the cycle into the canyon wall. It landed partly in the river, but Knievel walked away with minor injuries.