Robbie Knievel, daredevil son of Evel Knievel, dies at 60
- The US performer, who followed in his father’s thrill-seeking footsteps with record-breaking motorcycle stunts, died after a battle with pancreatic cancer
- His headline grabbing feats included a jump over the Caesars Palace fountains in Las Vegas and another across a Grand Canyon chasm
Robbie Knievel, an American stunt performer who set records with daredevil motorcycle jumps following the tyre tracks of his thrill-seeking father – including at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1989 and a Grand Canyon chasm a decade later – has died in Nevada, his brother said. He was 60.
Robbie Knievel died early on Friday at a hospice in Reno after battling pancreatic cancer, Kelly Knievel said.
“Daredevils don’t live easy lives,” Kelly Knievel said. “He was a great daredevil. People don’t really understand how scary it is what my brother did.”
As a boy, Robbie Knievel began on his bicycle to emulate his famous father, Evel Knievel, who died in 2007 in Clearwater, Florida.
But where Evel Knievel famously almost died from injuries when he crashed his Harley-Davidson during a jump over the Caesars Palace fountains in Las Vegas in 1967, Robbie completed the jump in 1989 using a specially designed Honda.
Robbie Knievel also made headline-grabbing Las Vegas Strip jumps over a row of limousines in 1998 at the Tropicana Hotel; between two buildings at the Jockey Club in 1999; and a New Year’s Eve jump amid fireworks in front of a volcano attraction at The Mirage on December 31, 2008.