Daredevil Robbie Knievel, son of Evel Knievel, dies at 60

CNN
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Robbie Knievel, who followed in the daredevil footsteps of his father Evel Knievel, died Friday, according to his brother, Kelly.

He was 60.

“He was in hospice for about four days. He had advanced pancreatic cancer,” Kelly Knievel told CNN. “He knew he was sick for probably six months.”

Robbie Knievel began motorcycle stunts in his teens and went on to do death-defying jumps over fountains at Caesars Palace and the aircraft on the deck of the USS Intrepid.

He performed more than 300 jumps and set 20 world records during his career, according to his official biography.

His brother remembers him the way most people do: as a “great daredevil,” he said.

“If you’ve ever been to one of his jumps, they were really dangerous, and you can’t really capture the emotional feeling of the danger that you see on TV,” Kelly Knievel said.

As for Robbie, he took pride in what he did, despite the dangers.

“I’m very proud of the fact that my dad pretty much created his own entertainment, sport, whatever you want to call it,” he told CNN’s Larry King in a 1989 interview. In the same interview, his father had said while he was proud of his son’s stunt work, he had tried to make Robbie promise as a child he would not follow his same career path out of concern for his safety.

And while Robbie Knievel had acknowledged having a strained relationship with his father growing up, he had said they ultimately grew closer as his stunt career began to flourish.

“Of the four of us kids, he disciplined me the most, since I was the rebel,” he wrote in 2019. “I was the one constantly challenging him and emulating him.”