18 most desperate daredevils

Last Sunday, famous American tightrope walker Nick Wallenda defied fate again and crossed the Grand Canyon on a metal cable without insurance. About him and other desperate stuntmen and daredevils - in our selection.

(Total 18 photos)

1. On October 14, 2012, Felix Baumgartner performed a stratosphere jump from a height of 38,969.4 meters (128,100 feet) and reached a top speed of 1,340 km/h. He became the first person to break the speed of sound in free fall. (Red Bull via Reuters)

2. Nick Wallenda, star of Life on a Tightrope, has taunted death several times with his wild passages. Wallenda is a seventh generation acrobat. He went through Niagara Falls in 2012 and now wants to be the first to cross the Grand Canyon. In this photo, he is training on the Ferris wheel. (Donaven Staab/Discovery Channel)

3. The son of circus performer David "Cannon Man" Smith, David Smith Jr., was preparing to become a lawyer until his father was injured during a performance and asked to take his place. To date, David has been fired from the cannon over 5,000 times. He entered the Guinness Book of Records for the longest cannon jump - 55 meters. (Janet Jensen / The News Tribune via AP)

4. Brooklyn native David Blaine is infamous for his public appearances, including a 44-day stunt in a transparent box next to the River Thames in London. He also submerged in a ball of water 2.4 meters in diameter in front of Lincoln Center in New York for seven days and seven nights. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP-Getty Images)

5. Steve Traglia is a stuntman with many films to his credit, including Saving Private Ryan and several James Bond films. Steve burned for over two minutes. He also holds the record for the longest breath-hold dive. (spacejump.co.uk)

6. Base jumper Jeb Corliss is sometimes referred to as the Flying Man because of his distinctive costume. He jumped from the Eiffel Tower and the Seattle Space Needle, but in 2006 he was captured by the police before he could jump from the Empire State Building in New York. (Axel Koester/Corbis)

7. French "spider-man" Alain Robert is known for his conquests of skyscrapers without insurance. He climbed the Eiffel Tower, the Willis Tower in Chicago, and one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan. (Emmanuel Aguirre/Getty Images)

8. Chinese star Jackie Chan is a real legend in terms of stunt tricks, and for comedies they are no less dangerous. He had already broken almost all his bones, and once even almost died when he fell from a tree and damaged his skull. Jackie Chan entered the Guinness Book of Records as "the living actor with the most stunts performed." They say that no company undertakes to insure him. (Everett Collection)

9. New Zealand stuntwoman Zoe Bell performed stunts for Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. On the set of Tarantino's film "Death Proof", she clung to the bumper of a car traveling at a speed of 136 km / h. (The Weinstein Company)

10. The legendary Flying Wallends dynasty of circus performers began performing in Germany in the 1780s. The jkrnalist called them "Flying Wallends" when he saw their performance. In 1962, two family members died and another was left paralyzed when their pyramid of seven people on a tightrope collapsed.

11. Robert Craig Knievel became a motorcycle stunt legend in the 1960s and 70s. He jumped 19 cars in his Harley-Davidson, setting a record that has not been broken in 27 years. In total, he broke 433 bones and died in 2007 at the age of 69 from a pulmonary embolism. His daredevil son Robbie Knievel continues his tradition. (AP)

12. Eric Weiss was born in Hungary in 1874, but he was better known as Harry Houdini. He became the greatest magician, specializing in escapes and releases. Among his most famous tricks is freeing himself from a transparent box filled with water, in which he was lowered upside down in chains. (Getty Images)

13. Chris Angel is a famous illusionist, magician and stuntman. He walked on water, flew over the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, and was also run over by an ice rink when Chris lay on broken glass. (Tina Fineberg / AP)

14. "Mr. Escape" - Steve Baker - is an illusionist, comedian and magician. In 1967, he performed the Houdini trick: he was hung from a pole in the Oakland Tribune Tower in a straitjacket, and he successfully freed himself from there.

15. "The Great Blondin" - French acrobat Jean-Francois-Gravelet became a legend in the 19th century for his daring tightrope tricks. He crossed Niagara Falls many times, including while blindfolded and with a man on his back. He even made himself an omelette on a rope. (Getty Images)

16. Philippe Petit - French street tightrope walker. He became famous in August 1974 when he walked on a cable between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Planning the stunt was as dangerous as executing it: he dressed up in a workman's outfit, secretly brought his equipment to the roof, and threw a cable to the other side of the building with a bow and arrow. After that, all charges regarding the illegal trick with Petya were dropped. (AP)

17. Queens native George Willig climbed the South Tower of the World Trade Center in 1977, less than three years after Philippe Petit walked between the towers by cable. Mayor Abe Beam fined him one cent per floor of the building, totaling $1.10. (AP)

18. Stunt performer Dar Allen Robinson has become a legend for performing the most daring jumps in Hollywood films. His stunt on the 67-meter Atlanta Hotel for Sharky's Crew, starring Burt Reynolds, still holds the record. He also jumped off the rim of the Grand Canyon in a vehicle and then successfully ejected. Dar Allen died while performing a simple stunt when his motorcycle failed to turn and he went off a cliff. (the-rocketman.com)