Tom Cruise suffered childhood injury copying Evel Knievel

Actor Tom Cruise narrowly escaped a serious injury as a child while emulating a stunt by daredevil Evel Knievel.
The 41-year-old star, who was a big fan of the famed stuntman as a young boy, decided to recreate one of Knievel's famous canyon jumps in the late 1960s and early 1970s, reported Contactmusic.
"I saw Evel Knievel jumping off a canyon and I lived on a steep hill so set up boards and trash cans to copy him. I was about eight years old and my sisters begged me not to do it, as I had been to the hospital a few times by this point," Cruise said.

The 'Top Gun' star set up ramps so he could leap over several trash cans on his pushbike, but his speedy descent down a steep hill ended in disaster when he careered into the bins and was left covered in blood on the sidewalk.
"I realised halfway down the hill that I couldn't stop and it was too late to bail - I was committed and I thought I'm going to go so far and so high but of course the boards split and I ended up just pile-driving through the cans. It was violent and there was blood everywhere, Cruise said.