Robbie Knivel, son of stunt performer Evel Knievel and a daredevil in his own right, has died.
The 60-year-old passed away early on Friday after battling pancreatic cancer, according to TMZ. Robbie was in hospice care in his last days and died with his daughters at his side, a family source told the sites.
Robbie began performing bike jumps at age 4 and appeared in his father’s show at Madison Square Garden at age 8. The stuntman, nicknamed “Kaptain Robbie Knievel,” performed more than 350 jumps in his career, of which 20 set world records.
The daredevil famously bested his father when he landed a jump over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1989. And in 2009, he took his motorcycle flying above the man-made volcano at Vegas’ Mirage Hotel. In his final jump, he soared 150 feet above tractor-trailer trucks at a casino in Coachella, California, in 2011.
Robbie’s daughters are Krysten and Karmen, the former of whom is the lead singer of the rock music group Knievel’s Daredevil Band.
Krysten shared lessons from Robbie and Evel, who died in 2007 at age 69, in a 2018 interview with WIBW. “My grandfather influenced me as far as, like, the show must go on. He told people you show up, you do your job, you act professional,” she said. “Always be humble — that’s the one thing that my dad always taught me. You treat the CEO the same way that you treat the maintenance worker.”
As word of Robbie’s death spread, fans mourned the loss on Twitter. “Lost another legend,” Richard Rawlings, classic car expert and star of “Fast N’ Loud” on Discovery, tweeted on Friday. “Rest in paradise, Robbie Knievel.”
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