Henri Rechatin | Tightrope walker, 82

Henri Rechatin, 82, the celebrated French tightrope walker and chair-balancer known as Henry's, died Friday.

Henry's once walked along the cable that carries cable cars to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi in the Alps.

Vincent said Henry's once balanced above the Grand Canyon and that such international stunts helped promote Saint-Etienne around the world.

At Niagara Falls in 1975, he balanced on a platform attached to a motorcycle that his friend rode across the cable over the Whirlpool Rapids, all while his wife hung from a pole he carried on his shoulders, according to the Niagara Falls Public Library.

But he is perhaps most famous in France for spending six months in 1973 on a cable 66 feet above a supermarket in Saint-Etienne. In one photo, he is sitting down to shave. - AP