30 Nov 07 Evel Knievel Dies

Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho’s Snake River Canyon 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 pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

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

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