Interpol Shrimper
Member
ITN said:Motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel has died at the age of 69.
According to his website the daredevil had been ill for some time.
In his heyday, the tempestuous showman dressed like a superhero for his jumps, wearing a red, white and blue leather jumpsuit with a cape and cane, his hair sculpted back in a tall pompadour.
Knievel's greatest stunt turned out to be a failure when on September 8, 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.
RIP, no cheeky comments about him being buried alive as one final stunt :p