Robert Craig Knievel—the man the world knew as Evel—spent his entire life staring down the grim reaper from the seat of a Harley-Davidson. He jumped over sharks, crates of rattlesnakes, and 14 Greyhound buses. He famously crashed at Caesars Palace, a wreck so violent it looked like a ragdoll being tossed into a blender. People naturally assumed he’d go out in a blaze of glory, probably in some spectacular, high-octane explosion that would be televised in prime time.
But that's not what happened.
Evel Knievel died on November 30, 2007. He didn't die on a ramp or in a canyon. Honestly, he passed away in a bed in Clearwater, Florida, at the age of 69. For a guy who held the Guinness World Record for the most broken bones in a lifetime (somewhere around 433 fractures), living to nearly 70 was a miracle in itself.
The Long Road to November 30
It’s kinda wild when you look at how much his body had been through by the time 2007 rolled around. If you’re asking when did Evel Knievel die, you also have to look at how he lived, because his lifestyle definitely caught up with him. He wasn't just dealing with old jump injuries.
By the late '90s, his health was a total wreck. He had Hepatitis C, which he likely picked up from a blood transfusion after one of his many surgeries. This led to his liver failing, and he actually had a liver transplant in 1999. Most people would have slowed down, but Evel was still Evel.
Then came the real "killer."
He was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Basically, his lungs were turning into scar tissue. It makes it nearly impossible to breathe. By the end, he was tethered to oxygen tanks and had an internal morphine pump just to deal with the constant, grinding pain in his back and joints.
What Actually Caused His Death?
On that Friday in late November, Knievel’s breathing finally gave out. The official cause of death was a combination of that pulmonary fibrosis and complications from diabetes.
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It was a quiet end for a man who lived his life at 100 miles per hour. Just two days before he died, he had actually settled a long-standing federal lawsuit with Kanye West over the "Touch the Sky" music video. Talk about timing. He went out with his legal affairs settled and his family nearby.
The 433 Broken Bones Myth vs. Reality
People love to cite that 433 number. It's a great stat. But Knievel himself used to joke that he'd broken every bone in his body except his "pinky finger."
The reality is a bit more nuanced. He did have an absurd amount of hardware in his body. Steel plates, pins, and screws held his skeleton together like a Meccano set. By the time he reached his final years, he had more in common with his motorcycles than with most humans.
- Caesars Palace (1967): Crushed pelvis, broken femur, fractured hip.
- Wembley Stadium (1975): Broken pelvis (again).
- Snake River Canyon (1974): Surprisingly, he only walked away with a broken nose and some scrapes after his "Skycycle" parachute deployed early.
Every single one of those impacts contributed to the systemic failure of his health later on. The trauma to his internal organs from those high-speed decelerations is likely why his body started giving out decades before it "should" have.
His Legacy in Butte and Beyond
Evel was buried in his hometown of Butte, Montana. If you ever go there, you can visit his grave. It’s a place of pilgrimage for stunt riders and adrenaline junkies. His funeral was huge—over 8,000 people showed up to say goodbye to the man in the white leather jumpsuit.
Even Matthew McConaughey showed up to give a eulogy. He called Evel a "legend" who was "forever in flight." It was a fitting tribute to a guy who essentially invented the concept of extreme sports. Before X-Games, before Nitro Circus, there was just one guy on a heavy, poorly-suspended bike trying to clear a bunch of cars.
Why His Death Still Matters Today
When did Evel Knievel die? It feels like a lifetime ago, yet his influence is everywhere. You see it in every Red Bull stunt and every YouTuber doing something stupid for views. But Evel was different. He didn't have GoPro footage or modern safety gear. He had a cape and a "can-do" attitude that bordered on insanity.
If you're looking to dive deeper into the life of the man who cheated death for four decades, here are a few things you can actually do:
- Visit the Evel Knievel Museum: It's located in Topeka, Kansas. They have the original "Skycycle" and a bunch of his restored jump bikes.
- Watch 'Being Evel': This 2015 documentary is probably the most honest look at his life. It doesn't sugarcoat the fact that he could be a pretty difficult, sometimes violent person.
- Check out the Snake River Canyon site: You can still see the dirt ramp in Twin Falls, Idaho. Standing on the edge of that canyon gives you a real sense of how crazy that jump actually was.
Evel Knievel didn't die the way we expected, but he lived exactly the way he wanted. He proved that you could fail spectacularly and still become a hero. In a world of polished, perfect influencers, there's something refreshing about a guy who was mostly known for the times he crashed.