Post by ovechkin8 on Dec 1, 2007 8:46:31 GMT -1
The obituary.
Robert Craig Knievel was born at Butte, Montana, on October 17 1938, the son of a car salesman. His parents soon separated and he was brought up by his grandparents.
There was little for teenagers to do in the copper-mining town of Butte except try and impress each other. Young Robert soon graduated from doing wheelies down the main street in an earth-mover to petty crime and regular trips to the police cells. The origin of his nickname, originally spelt "Evil", is obscure, but dates from this time.
Knievel attended Butte High School, which he left early, but not before discovering his sporting talent. In 1959 he played professional ice-hockey for a season in North Carolina, and then served in the army before returning to Montana to work as a hunting guide. He discovered that elk were being culled by the government in Yellowstone Park and in 1961 he hitch-hiked to Washington DC to ask the Secretary of the Interior to move the chosen elk to Montana, where they could be shot by Knievel's hunters.
His petition was successful, although it is unclear whether his gift of a pair of antlers swayed the Secretary's decision. Thereafter Knievel worked briefly as an insurance salesman. He sold 271 policies in a single week, but left his employers when they did not immediately offer him a seat on the board.
Then he embarked on a successful career as a safe cracker, working mainly in Oregon. He also had spells as a bank robber, swindler and pickpocket. After several narrow escapes from the law, he decided to go straight and settled at Moses Lake, Washington, where he worked as a car dealer. Prospective customers could obtain a discount of $100 if they defeated him at arm wrestling.
Knievel meanwhile had kept up his youthful proficiency with motorcycles, and in 1965 set up his own troope of stunt riders, The Daredevils, who toured the Western states as a latter-day mechanised rodeo. However, one by one the riders dropped out, unwilling to keep up with someone whose idea of crowd-pleasing was being strapped to a parachute and then towed behind a drag-racer at 200 miles per hour.
Knievel made his name in America with a single jump in Las Vegas in 1968. Accelerating up a ramp, he lept his motorcycle 141 feet over the ornamental fountains outside the Caesar's Palace hotel. On landing, he pulverised his spine and pelvis and had to walk with crutches for the next year; but his fee for such jumps had increased tenfold.
In February 1971, still not fully fit, he broke his own distance record by jumping 150 feet to clear 19 cars placed side- to-side.
At the height of his fame in Britain, newspaper leader writers contrasted unfavourably the inability of Chancellor Denis Healey to keep interest rates up with Knievel's skill at defying gravity.
Then, in 1977, Knievel was convicted of assaulting his former agent, Sheldon Saltman. Knievel had objected to Saltman's book Evel Knievel on Tour, which portrayed the stuntman as an alcoholic addicted to painkillers; moreover, it alleged that Knievel did not love his mother.
Knievel severely chastised Saltman with a baseball bat and was ordered to pay him £6.8 million in damages. He was also sentenced to six months in prison.
When he was released in 1979 he announced plans for his most ludicrous stunt yet. He was to freefall 40,000 feet from a B-29 bomber and land, without using a parachute, in a large haystack placed in the parking lot of a Las Vegas casino. The jump never happened. Knievel abruptly announced that he had lost his nerve and was retiring for good.
More importantly, he had run out of money. The size of his fortune had always been a subject for speculation, with estimates as high as £43 million, but having once owned 16 boats and been able to gamble £50,000 on a game of golf, Knievel was now down to his last yacht. He spent the next 20 years living in Florida and on his ranch in Montana, occasionally falling foul of the law, and making a living from selling mediocre paintings.
He also took an interest in the stunt career of his son Robbie, who broke his father's record by leaping 22 cars, and once cleared a low-flying aircraft; in May 1999, Robbie surpassed his father by successfully leaping 228ft across the Grand Canyon, a feat that Evel had been refused permission to attempt in 1974.
A film, Evel Knievel, was made of the stuntman's life in 1971; it starred George Hamilton.
He married his childhood sweetheart Linda Bork in 1959. She fell for his romantic nature after he kidnapped her three times. The couple separated in the late 1990's and Knievel married Krystal Kennedy in 1999. They divorced a few years later but remained together until his death.
Knieval had four children, Kelly, Robbie, Tracey and Alicia.
Quite a fascinating character it would seem. Just about remember seeing some of his stunts replayed in the ealry 80s.
Robert Craig Knievel was born at Butte, Montana, on October 17 1938, the son of a car salesman. His parents soon separated and he was brought up by his grandparents.
There was little for teenagers to do in the copper-mining town of Butte except try and impress each other. Young Robert soon graduated from doing wheelies down the main street in an earth-mover to petty crime and regular trips to the police cells. The origin of his nickname, originally spelt "Evil", is obscure, but dates from this time.
Knievel attended Butte High School, which he left early, but not before discovering his sporting talent. In 1959 he played professional ice-hockey for a season in North Carolina, and then served in the army before returning to Montana to work as a hunting guide. He discovered that elk were being culled by the government in Yellowstone Park and in 1961 he hitch-hiked to Washington DC to ask the Secretary of the Interior to move the chosen elk to Montana, where they could be shot by Knievel's hunters.
His petition was successful, although it is unclear whether his gift of a pair of antlers swayed the Secretary's decision. Thereafter Knievel worked briefly as an insurance salesman. He sold 271 policies in a single week, but left his employers when they did not immediately offer him a seat on the board.
Then he embarked on a successful career as a safe cracker, working mainly in Oregon. He also had spells as a bank robber, swindler and pickpocket. After several narrow escapes from the law, he decided to go straight and settled at Moses Lake, Washington, where he worked as a car dealer. Prospective customers could obtain a discount of $100 if they defeated him at arm wrestling.
Knievel meanwhile had kept up his youthful proficiency with motorcycles, and in 1965 set up his own troope of stunt riders, The Daredevils, who toured the Western states as a latter-day mechanised rodeo. However, one by one the riders dropped out, unwilling to keep up with someone whose idea of crowd-pleasing was being strapped to a parachute and then towed behind a drag-racer at 200 miles per hour.
Knievel made his name in America with a single jump in Las Vegas in 1968. Accelerating up a ramp, he lept his motorcycle 141 feet over the ornamental fountains outside the Caesar's Palace hotel. On landing, he pulverised his spine and pelvis and had to walk with crutches for the next year; but his fee for such jumps had increased tenfold.
In February 1971, still not fully fit, he broke his own distance record by jumping 150 feet to clear 19 cars placed side- to-side.
At the height of his fame in Britain, newspaper leader writers contrasted unfavourably the inability of Chancellor Denis Healey to keep interest rates up with Knievel's skill at defying gravity.
Then, in 1977, Knievel was convicted of assaulting his former agent, Sheldon Saltman. Knievel had objected to Saltman's book Evel Knievel on Tour, which portrayed the stuntman as an alcoholic addicted to painkillers; moreover, it alleged that Knievel did not love his mother.
Knievel severely chastised Saltman with a baseball bat and was ordered to pay him £6.8 million in damages. He was also sentenced to six months in prison.
When he was released in 1979 he announced plans for his most ludicrous stunt yet. He was to freefall 40,000 feet from a B-29 bomber and land, without using a parachute, in a large haystack placed in the parking lot of a Las Vegas casino. The jump never happened. Knievel abruptly announced that he had lost his nerve and was retiring for good.
More importantly, he had run out of money. The size of his fortune had always been a subject for speculation, with estimates as high as £43 million, but having once owned 16 boats and been able to gamble £50,000 on a game of golf, Knievel was now down to his last yacht. He spent the next 20 years living in Florida and on his ranch in Montana, occasionally falling foul of the law, and making a living from selling mediocre paintings.
He also took an interest in the stunt career of his son Robbie, who broke his father's record by leaping 22 cars, and once cleared a low-flying aircraft; in May 1999, Robbie surpassed his father by successfully leaping 228ft across the Grand Canyon, a feat that Evel had been refused permission to attempt in 1974.
A film, Evel Knievel, was made of the stuntman's life in 1971; it starred George Hamilton.
He married his childhood sweetheart Linda Bork in 1959. She fell for his romantic nature after he kidnapped her three times. The couple separated in the late 1990's and Knievel married Krystal Kennedy in 1999. They divorced a few years later but remained together until his death.
Knieval had four children, Kelly, Robbie, Tracey and Alicia.
Quite a fascinating character it would seem. Just about remember seeing some of his stunts replayed in the ealry 80s.
