Evel Knievel
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Related e |
Featured: |
Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel (October 17, 1938 – November 30, 2007), was an American daredevil, painter, entertainer, and international icon. In his career, he attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps between 1965 and 1980, and in 1974, a failed jump across Snake River Canyon in the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket. He suffered more than 433 bone fractures in his career, thereby earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the survivor of "most bones broken in a lifetime". Knievel died of pulmonary disease in Clearwater, Florida, aged 69. According to the British paper The Times writing his obituary, Knievel was one of the greatest American icons of the 1970s. Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.