Evel Knievel was the most famous stuntman to ever walk or should we say ride on the face of the earth. His legendary daredevil acts will forever be memorialized and never forgotten. In his legendary career, he attempted over 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps between 1965 and 1980, and in 1974, he even attempted to jump across Snake River Canyon in the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket. The 433 broken bones he suffered during his career earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the survivor of "most bones broken in a lifetime." Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999 and died of pulmonary disease in Clearwater, Florida in 2007 at the age of 69. Knievel was one of the greatest American icons of the 1970s. His face was pictured on hundreds of different licensed items, from lunchboxes to toy motorcycles and everything in between. Perhaps his most famous jump was on New Year's Eve 1967 when Knievel persuaded the owners of Caesar's Palace hotel and casino in Las Vegas to allow him to jump their fountains in the front of the property. On the morning of the jump, Knievel stopped in the casino and placed his last 100 dollars on a blackjack table (which he lost), stopped by the bar and had a shot of Wild Turkey and then headed outside, where he was joined by several members of the Caesars staff, as well as two showgirls. After doing his normal pre-jump show and a few warm-up approaches, Knievel began his real approach. When he hit the takeoff ramp, he felt the motorcycle unexpectedly decelerate. The sudden loss of power on the takeoff caused Knievel to come up short and land on the safety ramp which was supported by a van. This caused the handlebars to be ripped out of his hands as he tumbled over them on to the pavement, where he skidded into the Dunes parking lot. As a result of the crash, Knievel suffered a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles and a concussion that kept him in a coma for 29 days. The Caesars Palace crash would represent Knievel's longest attempted motorcycle jump at 141 feet. After his crash and recovery, Knievel was more famous than ever. ABC-TV bought the rights to the film of the jump, paying far more than they originally would have had they televised the original jump live. Ironically, when Knievel finally achieved the fame and possible fortune that he always wanted, his doctors were telling him that he might never walk without the aid of crutches, let alone ride and jump motorcycles. It was literally the beginning of his unprecendented success as a stuntman.

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