Daredevil Evel Knievel dies at 69

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) — Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, who wowed and terrified crowds with his daring long-distance leaps and equally spectacular falls, died Friday at the age of 69, his website said.

The site gave no cause of death for Knievel, the man who survived death-defying stunts in the 1960s and 1970s, notably a 1974 jump over the Snake River Canyon in the northwestern state of Idaho with a rocket-propelled bike.

But US media said Knievel, who lived in the southeastern state of Florida, died of lung failure. He also suffered from diabetes and liver disease.

Knievel gained worldwide fame as the man who would dare rev up his bike to jump over long lines of buses and cars in thrilling spectacles which drew tens of thousands of spectators....