Daredevil Evel Knievel, who dodged death in a series of spectacular motorcycle leaps and crashes that made his name synonymous with showmanship, died today aged 69.
A message on his personal website simply read: "Robert Craig 'Evel' Knievel October 17, 1938 - November 30, 2007." He had been ill for some time.
In his heyday, the showman dressed like a superhero for his jumps, wearing a red, white and blue leather jumpsuit with a cape and cane.
Knievel's greatest stunt turned out to be a failure when on September 8th, 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.
