Legendary daredevil and motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel died Friday after lengthy illnesses aged 69, his family said.

A message on his website said "Robert Craig 'Evel' Knievel October 17, 1938 - November 30, 2007."

Knievel, who defied death in numerous stunts, had suffered in later years from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs. He also underwent a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C.

Knievel became a pop culture icon with his record-breaking motorbike jumps in the 1970s, in which he was invariably dressed as an American superhero with capes and uniforms sporting the national colours.

But ironically his two most famous efforts both ended in failure and broken bones. He first came to national attention when he crashed in an attempt to jump the fountain at Caesar's Palace hotel in Las Vegas in a move that was televised on US network television. Five years later he failed to make it across the Snake River Canyon before more than 100,000 fans and millions more on television, parachuting down to land in the river.

"People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser," he said in one interview. "They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."