Image Courtesy of The BBC...

Via The BBC...

Legendary US daredevil Evel Knievel has died at the age of 69, his granddaughter has said.

Knievel had suffered ill-health, including diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis - an incurable lung condition - for several years.

He underwent a liver transplant, after nearly dying of hepatitis C, in 1999.

Knievel gained cult status performing death-defying stunts in the 1960s and 70s, including an attempted motorcycle jump over Snake River Canyon in Idaho.

He regularly drew huge crowds when he attempted to jump over rows of parked vehicles with his motorbike.

By the time he retired in 1980 Knievel had broken nearly 40 bones.

There's also an article this morning on the CBC about it...

It wasn't that long ago that Knievel was in the news for a different reason... Via MyWay News...

Evel Knievel and Kanye West have worked it out. The 69-year-old iconic motorcycle daredevil said he and West met at his Clearwater condo recently. They settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.

Knievel sued West and his record company last year. He took issue with a 2006 music video for the song "Touch the Sky," in which the rapper takes on the persona of "Evel Kanyevel" and tries to jump a rocket-powered motorcycle over a canyon.

Knievel failed in his attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in 1974.

West's attorneys argued the video amounted to satire, covered under the First Amendment.

"We settled the lawsuit amicably," Knievel said Tuesday. "I was very satisfied and so was he."

They agreed not to publicly discuss the terms of the settlement, he said. The two had agreed to mediation in July.

Robert Craig Knievel: 1938 - 2007