CLEARWATER, FL (1010 WINS) -- Evel Knievel's hard life killed him _ it just took longer than he or anyone else might have expected.
The hard-living motorcycle daredevil, whose bone-breaking, rocket-powered jumps and stunts made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.
He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs. He had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his many spills. He also suffered two strokes in recent years.
Longtime friend and promoter Billy Rundle 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?'' said Rundle, organizer of the annual ``Evel Knievel Days'' festival in the daredevil's Butte, Mont., hometown.
Knievel's son Kelly, 47, said he had visited his father in Clearwater for Thanksgiving.
``I think he lived 20 years longer than most people would have'' after so many injuries, Kelly Knievel said. ``I think he willed himself into an extra five or six years.''
Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as ``America's Legendary Daredevil,'' Knievel was best known for a failed attempt to jump an Idaho canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.
For the tall, thin daredevil, the limelight was always comfortable, the gab glib. There always were mountains to climb, feats to conquer.
``No king or prince has lived a better life,'' he told The Associated Presss in May 2006. ``You're looking at a guy who's really done it all. And there are things I wish I had done better, not only for me but for the ones I loved.''
He garbed himself in red, white and blue and had a knack for outrageous yarns: ``Made $60 million, spent 61. ...Lost $250,000 at blackjack once. ... Had $3 million in the bank, though.''
His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.
Although he dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, Knievel enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years. He made a good living selling autographs and endorsing products. Thousands came to Butte every year as his legend was celebrated during ``Evel Knievel Days.''
``They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives,'' Knievel said. ``People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner.''
He began his daredevil career in 1965 when he formed a troupe called Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Daredevils, a touring show in which he performed stunts such as riding through fire walls, jumping over live rattlesnakes and mountain lions and being towed at 200 mph behind dragster race cars.
In 1966 he began touring alone, barnstorming the West and doing everything from driving the trucks, erecting the ramps and promoting the shows. In the beginning he charged $500 for a jume 1970s and '80s.
Born Robert Craig Knievel in the copper mining town of Butte on Oct. 17, 1938, Knievel was raised by his grandparents. He traced his career choice back to the time he saw Joey Chitwood's Auto Daredevil Show at age 8.
Outstanding in track and field, ski jumping and ice hockey at Butte High School, he went on to win the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1957 and played with the Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League in 1959.
He also formed the Butte Bombers semiprofessional hockey team, acting as owner, manager, coach and player.
Knievel also worked in the Montana copper mines, served in the Army, ran his own hunting guide service, sold insurance and ran Honda motorcycle dealerships. At various times and in different interviews, Knievel claimed to have been a swindler, a card thief, a safe cracker, a holdup man.
Evel Knievel married his hometown girlfriend, Linda Joan Bork, in 1959. They separated in the early 1990s. They had four children, Kelly, Robbie, Tracey and Alicia.
Robbie Knievel followed in his father's footsteps as a daredevil, jumping a moving locomotive in a 200-foot, ramp-to-ramp motorcycle stunt on live television in 2000. He also jumped a 200-foot-wide chasm of the Grand Canyon.
Knievel lived with his longtime partner, Krystal Kennedy-Knievel, splitting his time between their Clearwater condo and Butte. They married in 1999 and divorced a few years later but remained together. Knievel had 10 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
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