French-born Philippe Petit was the perpetrator of what’s been called the artistic crime of the century.

“It was a hot summer morning in Lower Manhattan when the artist tiptoed across a ¾-inch cable hung 1,368 feet above the ground, crossing the 130 feet separating the two skyscrapers not once, but multiple times. It was August 7, 1974, and New Yorkers held their breath, watching in awe as Petit walked back and forth between the (World Trade Center) towers, performing knee bends and other stunts. The whole affair lasted an unforgettable 45 minutes.” (Daniel Jonas Roche, The Architect’s Newspaper, Aug. 5, 2024)

Fifty years later, Aug. 7, 2024, Petit is at it again, this time at New York’s Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine where he has been artist-in-residence for decades.

“With the majestic Gothic cathedral suffused in golden light, the man about to walk the taut cable rigged across the cavernous nave draped a glittering cloak over his white jacket and knee-length breeches, transforming into both master sorcerer and jester. He promenaded across the wire, now balancing without his pole, now lying down as if on a hammock and pretending to strum along with Sting, who sang his ballad ‘Fields of Gold’ from the stage: ‘You’ll remember me when the west wind moves’ and ‘forget the sun in his jealous sky.’ Perfect lines for his aerialist friend above, the legendary Philippe Petit, who is most at home in the upper regions.” (Wendy Blake, West Side Rag, Aug. 11, 2024)

Artistic, yes, but still a crime. And Petit was arrested after his World Trade Center performance. That wasn’t a first for him. There was a high-wire walk at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971 and another at the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia in 1973.  “The police try to get me off, but they cannot. When I finish, I go to jail. I go to court. I pay a fine and usually I am freed. And I am on the front page of newspapers all over the world.” (Lisa lervolino, The Daily Item, Port Chester, N.Y.,  Aug. 5 1983)

The World Trade Center walk resulted in more than just front-page headlines. “The phone rang with one offer after another. There was a multimillion-dollar film deal from MGM. There was a book proposal: How To Walk The Wire in Your Back Yard in Five Days. There were beer endorsements; wine commercials; Burger King offered him $100,000 to dress up as a Whopper and wire across 8th Avenue to open a new franchise. Someone even wanted him to make a record, based on what he had said to the press after his arrest: ‘When I see two oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk.’ He turned them all down. ‘I could have become a millionaire within days. A stupid book would have been made, a stupid film, stupid T-shirts, stupid little dolls climbing on the tower like King Kong would have been made. I didn’t say no in principle, I said no because I looked at the people and heard their words and everything was wrong. There was a different language, it was a different point of view. It was not me. And I cannot be not me.’” (London Observer, Jan. 13, 2003)

There would be books. Six of them, in fact, most notably 1985’s “On the High Wire.” He is currently working on an autobiography. A documentary about the World Trade Center walk called “Man on Wire” won the audience award at Sundance for best documentary in 2008. It is available on a number of streaming services including Amazon, Apple and YouTube.

In 2015 there was a fictional movie “The Walk” directed by Forrest Gump director Robert Zemekis. That’s available on the same streaming outlets. 
https://youtu.be/GR1EmTKAWIw?si=9bhbfelJlgjXWLa2

Petit never stopped thinking of himself as a street performer. When his feet are at ground level, that may involve juggling.

“Despite publicists, organized appearances and the paperwork and bureaucracy that accompany them, Petit is still doing his own thing on his own terms. In New York City, where he is an artist-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, you might find him juggling on the street. He rarely announces his appearances, just draws a chalk circle on the ground, declares it his stage, and starts performing.” (Katya Cengel, Louisville Journal, Oct. 1, 2010)

He has never stopped walking on wire. He has done several shows at St. John the Divine. Shortly after his World Trade Center escapade, he did a five-week run with the Big Apple Circus in Lincoln Center. In 1983, he strung a wire from the top of the Center for the Arts building at SUNY Purchase. Here’s an account of a more recent performance in Washington, D.C.:

“It’s no small feat keeping hundreds of elementary school students still and silent for nearly ten minutes. 
“That’s what high-wire artist Philippe Petit accomplished on Friday morning, as he crossed the National Building Museum’s Great Hall, more than 50 feet above students’ heads. 
“Petit crossed a wire strung across the museum’s cavernous Great Hall several times, as students below sat craning their necks in awe. Philippe also performed at a $300-a-plate fundraiser for the museum on Thursday evening. The performance for schools was free.” (Jacob Fenston, dcist.com, March 24, 2023)

Petit moved to New York shortly after his famous walk. He lives in a small town upstate near Woodstock. He built a barn there using only tools from the 18th century. A reporter from the Observer interviewed him in 2003 and had this observation: “he is somehow not what I had expected of the world’s most famous wire-walker. A broad, weatherbeaten man in a corduroy cap, he wears a washed-out cotton jacket and suede clogs. He has thick, stubby, calloused fingers worn at the ends like well-used wooden spoons… His English is quick and confident but, even after 28 years in America, still heavily accented and sometimes odd.”
When Katya Cengel of the Louisville Journal met him she offered this description (Oct. 1 2010):

“Petit is dressed in ordinary black pants, brown walking shoes and a black, long-sleeve T-shirt. He may have risen to great heights as a high-wire artist, but in person he is surprisingly small in stature and rather unassuming. He is 61 years old now and a little round in the belly and with a deep furrow between his eyes.”

The author Collum McCann met up with Petit earlier this year for a story he wrote for Esquire (Aug. 11, 2025): “Nowadays he spends most of his time in Upstate New York, and the rest of it in his gloriously idiosyncratic head.
“‘I’m working on a dovetail joint,’ Petit told me, referring to a piece he has been toiling on in his carpentry shop. ‘I’m following the plan of a master craftsman. It’s for a drawer I’m making to go with my worktable in my barn.’”

At age 76, is he ready to retire? Here’s what he told McCann:

“I don’t have a philosophy of time. I just forget about time. It disappears from me. I don’t have any notions of age either. Ageing doesn’t exist for me. I’m just busy doing my thing. I am physically active and strong and supple. I ride my unicycle. I do my juggling. I practise on the high wire. I have my own programme of jogging and weightlifting. Two to three hours a day. One day, of course, my body may refuse to do all of these things, but for now I just don’t even acknowledge the passing of time.”

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(Newspaper articles cited above without links were accessed on newspapers.com.)