Evel Knievel Jumps the River Jordan

Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel has made his last big leap:

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) - Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose exploits made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

He was quite the entertainer. I can remember watching a number of his jumps on ABC's Wide World of Sports, including several which resulted in very bad crashes (the London jump at Wembley Stadium comes to mind). I'll also never forget the aborted attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon on his jetcycle.

He was an American original.