Getting a jump on life

Evel KNIEVEL hasn’t made a major motorcycle jump since 1980, when he broke his forearm and suffered a concussion attempting to clear a tank of live sharks, but his absence seems to be making Hollywood’s heart grow fonder. This weekend, TNT will air “Evel Knievel,” the fourth movie to chronicle the legendary daredevil’s life. (And Universal Pictures has a fifth in active development: “Pure Evel,” directed by McG of “Charlie’s Angels” fame.)

Jumping ever-increasing clumps of cars, trucks and buses in a superhero starred-and-striped cape, breaking so many bones that he’s spent more than three years of his life in the hospital, flying his twin Learjets side by side so he can admire one while traveling in the other -- it’s hard to find a more colorful personality than this amazingly still-living legend.

Now 65, he drives around the country in a meticulously clean luxury RV with white leather interior, a tiny Maltese pup named Rocket and a trailer filled with custom bikes and outfits, visiting car and motorcycle dealerships that pay him to show up and sign autographs.

The $10,000 to $25,000 he earns per appearance is a far cry from the $1 million he made clearing 13 double-decker buses in London in 1975 or the $6 million he got for his rocket-propelled attempt at crossing the Snake River Canyon three decades ago (both ended with crash landings). But for an aging daredevil, the money’s good.

“There was only one problem with my business,” said Knievel, surprisingly sprite during a recent stop at Galpin Motors in Van Nuys. “You had to be alive to collect the money.”

Unbuttoning his Hawaiian skull-and-crossbones shirt, he proudly runs a Liberace-esque jeweled finger across the raised, white-seamed scars on his chest, back and arms.

This year alone, Knievel has undergone a double-union spine fusion to remedy the decades of pain caused from breaking his back during a 1972 attempt at hurdling 15 cars on two wheels. He also broke his knee after slipping in his whirlpool. Most recently, doctors discovered spots on his lungs, a result of the short time he worked as a coal miner in his native Montana.

Four years ago, he had his hip replaced. Three years ago he got an organ transplant to cure the liver disease caused not by the Wild Turkey he was known to sip from his walking cane, which doubled as a portable bar, but the hepatitis C he received in blood transfusions because of his stunt-induced injuries.

Knievel had waited two years for the liver, and when he finally got one, he was so close to death that the doctors were prepping him on the operation table without knowing if the organ was a complete match.

Knievel has never admitted to being afraid in his life, just “dreadfully concerned,” but the day his liver came in, he said he was terrified. When he expressed his fear to the doctor, the surgeon merely laughed and said, “You’re the daredevil.”

These days, Knievel continues to be bold and reckless, though not in such a sensational way. He may not careen down ramps and fly over canyons anymore, but he still rides.

“I don’t feel good, but I make myself do it,” said Knievel, who hauls around his rocket bike for show but rides a more modest custom-built V twin. “I just feel if I do it, I’m going to get better.”

The adrenaline rush he used to get from motorcycles he now gets through gambling -- on football, basketball and golf, the latter of which he also plays with his wife, Krystal, who is 30 years his junior.

“I gamble $100,000 a day,” he said. He often loses but, he said, “I love the challenge.”

It’s that can-do spirit coupled with some pretty crazy ideas that has made him such an enduring pop culture phenomenon -- the star subject of motion pictures and countless merchandising tie-ins for toys, pinball machines, Halloween costumes, bicycles, helmets, skateboards, skis and candy.

Knievel doubts there will ever be another daredevil like him, though his son Robbie has been giving it his best shot. The junior Knievel has broken all of his father’s records, including a successful jump over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas -- the same jump that crushed his dad’s pelvis and sent him to the hospital and into a coma for 29 days when he tried it in 1967. Saturday night, Knievel Jr. will kick off the second airing of the new TNT film with a jump over an array of military aircraft on the deck of the former aircraft carrier Intrepid.

It was Robbie Knievel, not Evel, who consulted on “Evel Knievel,” starring “CSI’s” George Eads.

The elder Knievel is under contract to serve as technical director on the upcoming “Pure Evel,” the first to highlight his ill-fated Snake River Canyon jump via rocket.

“People believe in me,” Knievel said of his enduring appeal. “They want to hear the truth about life. I’ve been through some horrible things.”

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Cable movie

What: “Evel Knievel”

Where: TNT

When: 8 p.m. Friday, 9 p.m. Saturday (Robbie Knievel jump at 8 p.m.), 8 p.m. Sunday.