Evel Knievel (1938–)

Daredevil motorcycle stuntmen are a rarity, far outnumbered by auto racers, skiers, or track-and-field athletes, let alone players from all sports. For years, Evel Knievel has had this field virtually all to himself. His successes—and his spectacular failures—have earned him a fame saved for mainstream athletes and movie stars.

Knievel—who was born Robert Craig Knievel—has an unusually varied background. He has been a ski-jump champion, a professional hockey player, a car salesman, a hunting guide, a con man, and a safecracker. He entered the profession that would earn him international fame in 1965 when he created an outfit called Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Daredevils. He won headlines on New Year's Day in 1968 when he successfully jumped his motorcycle over the fountains in front of the Caesar's Palace hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Even though he crash-landed and spent a month in a coma, his reputation was made. He followed up with additional jumps, on locations ranging from the Los Angeles Coliseum to Idaho's Snake River Canyon to Ohio's Kings Island, where he piloted his motorcycle over fourteen Greyhound busses.

Knievel's many crashes left his body mangled. He broke his pelvis while attempting to leap over thirteen double-decker buses at London's Wembley Stadium in 1975. The following year, he received major injuries while leaping over a tank filled with live sharks in the Chicago Amphitheater.

Miniature reproductions of Knievel's Stuntcycle became a popular toy in the 1970s. He was the subject of a Hollywood film biography, Evel Knievel (1971), and starred as himself on screen in Viva Knievel! (1977). Indeed, his death-defying exploits have won him near–folk hero status.

—Rob Edelman

For More Information

An American Legend: Evel Knievel Merchandise and Memorabilia.http://www.evel1.com/ (accessed March 19, 2002).

Collins, Ace. Evel Knievel: An American Hero. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Evel Knievel: Motorcycle Daredevil.http://www.who2.com/evelknievel.html (accessed March 19, 2002).

Scalzo, Joe. Evel Knievel and Other Daredevils. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1974.