10 Facts About Karl Wallenda

Karl Wallenda was a German-American high wire artist.

Karl Wallenda was the founder of The Flying Wallendas, a daredevil circus troupe whose members performed dangerous stunts far above the ground, often without a safety net.

Karl Wallenda's parents were Kunigunde and Engelbert Wallenda, and he began performing with his family at the age of six.

Karl Wallenda had the idea since 1938, but it took until 1946, when he and his brother Hermann developed it and had the right acrobats for it.

The Great Wallendas, a 1978 made-for-TV movie starring Karl Wallenda, depicts the act's comeback after a fatal accident involving several family members during a performance.

Karl Wallenda was killed in a high wire accident in San Juan, Puerto Rico just 38 days after it was first broadcast.

On July 18,1970, a 65-year-old Karl Wallenda performed a high-wire walk, known as a skywalk, across the Tallulah Gorge, a gorge formed by the Tallulah River in Georgia.

An estimated 30,000 people watched Karl Wallenda perform two headstands as he crossed the quarter-mile-wide gap.

In 1974, at 69 years old, he broke a world skywalk distance record of 1,800 feet at Kings Island, a record that stood until July 4,2008, when his great-grandson, Nik Karl Wallenda, completed a 2,000-foot skywalk at the same location.

Karl Wallenda was pronounced dead after his body arrived at the hospital.