Evel Knievel dies

[Phait]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071130/ap_on_re_us/obit_knievel

Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including 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.

Longtime friend and promoter Billy Rundel said Knievel had trouble breathing at his Clearwater condominium and died before an ambulance could get him to a hospital.

"It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" Rundel said.

[Thief]

That's sad. :(

And to think...Kanye West and Knievel just settled the lawsuit that Knievel had against Kanye for impersonating him in his video 'Touch The Sky' this week, or late last week.

R.I.P. Evel Knievel.

[Superczar]

69 years was a good long life for him considering that he should have died countless times, I remember they had that bio on him, I doubt most of those stunts will ever be tried again, even by his son...

[Kalki]

End of an era.

gg

[ryche]

World lost an icon :(

[jimbob]

i thought he already died a long time ago. aparently not. wel, he`ll probably be jumping over angels in heaven with his motorcycle.

[LeadBullet]

I doubt most of those stunts will ever be tried again, even by his son...

Nobody is crazy enough to. But I can't really see why that guy does any of that stuff at all. Following his dad can only be a real crowd draw if he did similar or bigger stunts than his dad. The few things I've seem him do are disappointments. Like one time I saw him jump over some canyon on TV. From the looks of it he took the most narrow and safest part of the canyon, and I think I also recall the ramp he jumped off of extending out past the edge of the cliff so he wasn't even jumping all of that.

[Paroxysm]

Let's see him get out of this one.

[MegaMustaine]

I doubt most of those stunts will ever be tried again, even by his son...

Even if he did, the bikes he rides on are much more advanced than his. Evel's bikes were basically stock and had little to no suspension.

[shiranui]

I used to have a wind up Evel Knievel toy in the 70's.

[Marty]

RIP dude

[DOSGuy]

Robbie Knievel has a team that simulates the jumps and figures out exactly how fast he needs to be going to complete them. A lot of planning goes into everything because, understandably, Robbie doesn't want to kill himself. His jumps are still dangerous, but with Evel Knievel it was something different. There was always a very good chance that he wasn't going to succeed, and he would get seriously injured or killed in the attempt.

I saw a biography about Evel, and they talked about a stunt he did where he looked at the buses and said, "I can't make that jump." Asked what he was going to do, he said that he couldn't just send everyone home, so he jumped them anyway. He didn't make the jump and suffered terrible injuries. Who, in their right mind, attempts a jump that they know they can't make, and will likely put them in the hospital? But that was what people loved about Evel Knievel. He would attempt the jump even if he knew that he was going to get hurt. He was a showman. A possibly insane showman.

RIP.

[Mr.Fibbles]

Wow, I didn't know he was still alive. I hadn't even heard of anything about his son in a long time (like since the 90's).

At least he died in a non too violent way. It may have been less fitting for him, but dying in a bed with family peacefully instead of flying into a wall you didn't make it over in a bike really isn't so bad.

[MegaMustaine]

Wow, I didn't know he was still alive. I hadn't even heard of anything about his son in a long time (like since the 90's).

Obviously you have not seen this.

http://www.uvouch.com/video-Robbie-Knievel-for-Holiday-Inn-503927

:D

[jimbob]

evel knievel was like the real life version of super dave :D

[ZaphodB]

A sad moment indeed. The greatest stuntman-thrillseeker-bike jumper ever now lost to the ages. Godspeed Evel Knievel.

[Grande 3:16]

I used to have a wind up Evel Knievel toy in the 70's.Earl was playing with one on "My Name Is Earl" one time, and I pretty much screamed at the TV "I USED TO HAVE ONE OF THOSE!" :love:

[Hudson]

Jump over god for me buddy o7

Rest in peace.

[Superczar]

I used to have a wind up Evel Knievel toy in the 70's.

Was it the bike that you pulled the string out several times to rev it up faster and faster? I had one of those and it was awesome - even had real rubber tires that would leave tracks on the kitchen floor... :D

[Mblackwell]

You're all liars. Evel Knievel can't die!