Evel Knievel, who defied death in numerous stunts, had suffered in later years from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis.

Evel Knievel had a life saving liver transplant in February of 1999 as a result of suffering the long term affects from Hepatitis C.  He contracted the disease after one of the numerous blood transfusions he received prior to 1992. In 2005, he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable and terminal lung disease and in 2006, he had an internal morphine pain pump surgically implanted to help him with the excruciating pain in his deteriorated lower back, one of the costs of incurring so many traumas over the course of his career as a daredevil.

Evel Knievel was born as Robert Craig Knievel in the mining city of Butte, Montana on October 17, 1938.

Later in his life Evel Knievel credited his experience of seeing Joe Chitwood’s automotive show for planting in him the seed that would grow into his career as a motorcycle daredevil.

In the late 1950s, Knievel joined the Army. After he left the Army, Knievel returned to Butte where he met, kidnapped and married his first wife, Linda Bork. An exceptional athlete Knievel tried to make a go at professional hockey. After a short stint with the Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League, he returned to his hometown to form the Butte Bombers semi-professional team.

But after he failed to achieve the success as a hockey player and team manager, Knievel began his daredevil career in 1965 when he formed a troupe called Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Daredevils that performed stunts including riding through fire walls and jumping over live rattlesnakes and mountain lions.

Knievel became a pop culture icon with his record-breaking motorbike jumps in the 1970s, in which he was invariably dressed as an American superhero with capes and uniforms sporting the national colours.

But ironically his two most famous efforts both ended in failure and broken bones. He first came to national attention when he crashed in an attempt to jump the fountain at Caesar's Palace hotel in Las Vegas in a move that was televised on US network television.

Knievel spent 29-days in the hospital, close to death at times, but he emerged with the announcement that he would not only walk again, his next great feat would be to jump across the Grand Canyon.

Five years later he failed to make it across the Snake River Canyon before more than 100,000 fans and millions more on television, parachuting down to land in the river.

Knievel decided to retire after a jump in the winter of 1976 in which he was again seriously injured.

"People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser," he said in one interview. "They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."

The BBC filmed a documentary on Knievel this past summer with legendary British talk personality Richard Hammond, exploring the impact America’s greatest daredevil had in the UK. The documentary is currently in production for airing in 2008.

Evel Knievel divorced Linda Joan Bork, in 1959. They had four children, Kelly, Robbie, Tracey and Alicia. In 1999 he married Krystal Kennedy-Knievel. They and divorced a few years later but remained together.