From humble beginnings, André Rene Roussimoff would achieve near-mythic
status within his brief lifetime. But actually being André the Giant was anything
but easy. He endured considerable pain, both physical and emotional.
André the Giant had reportedly built up a sizable fortune by the time of his death
in 1993. He had come a long way from the small Roussimoff family farm in the rural
French town of Molien. The biography "The Eighth Wonder of the World" notes that his
parents made sure to always have enough food for André and his four siblings,
but they never could afford a television set or gifts on holidays.
Soon after his birth in 1946, André learned how to work hard. His brother,
Jacques Roussimoff told Biography,
"My parents were very cool. We had a lot of freedom. Of course,
we had to work a lot because at that time, we didn't have a lot of money."
André took jobs around the farm and gave working at a factory a try,
but his whole world would change when he was invited to train as a wrestler in
Paris. According to "The Eighth Wonder of the World," he didn't get paid for his training,
so he worked as a bodyguard for sex workers in the red-light district of Pigalle. At one point,
his funds got so low that he resorted to sleeping in one of the city's metro stations.
André the Giant may have made a fortune, journeyed the world, and become a star in both the wrestling
ring and Hollywood due to his size. But his build created a lot of roadblocks for him,
too. For instance, André was actually rejected from the French Army in 1965 because the
equipment would have been too small for him. As André said in a 1985 interview with CBC News,
"They don't build anything for a giant."
Traveling was a particular problem,
with very few airlines and hotels capable of accommodating André's unique measurements.
In the HBO documentary "André the Giant," longtime friend and former referee Tim White remembered
that instead of squeezing himself in a plane's compact bathroom stall, André would urinate in a
bucket hidden only by a curtain. In an interview with "The Voice Versus," Hulk Hogan said,
"There was never a chair, there was never a knife, a fork, a bed,
there was never a situation where he could be comfortable."
André also had to have all his clothes custom-made — his shoe
size was 24 — and even something as simple as making a phone call was a
chore. As "André the Giant" director Jason Hehir told the New York Post,
"He couldn't dial a phone. He used to put a pencil in the holes of the rotary phone."
There's some confusion over whether André the Giant officially wed Jean Christensen,
the mother of his only child, back in the 1970s. According to Herald Net,
they didn't register their marriage in the United States, but did so in Canada.
Whether they were legally tied together or not, their relationship sadly didn't last.
Christensen, who had been a seamstress for wrestling gear,
and André separated shortly after they became parents. And daughter Robin
Christensen-Roussimoff suspected her father's profession was to blame, telling Herald Net,
"There were too many other people surrounding him. It
was a common law marriage, they were together forever until she had me."
In 2008, Jean offered a pretty backhanded
compliment to her former flame, telling Herald Net,
"He was a huge man, I was making his clothes. It was the only time he looked good."
According to Andre's ex Jean Christensen, you could count on one hand the number of
times that the star made the effort to see his only child,
Robin. Jean claimed Robin only saw André on five occasions before his death. And as
she later told CBS Sports, they weren't always during the most relaxed circumstances, either:
"I can recall two or three times at arenas. Unfortunately, other times, they were in court."
"He's, like, kind of a stranger, in a way."
Jackie McAuley, a longtime friend of André, claimed that the wrestler
was left heartbroken by his lack of father-daughter time. So what exactly
was it that kept them apart? Robin later explained to "Wrestle Zone Radio" podcast,
"We, unfortunately, did not have that great of a relationship. Mostly because he was on
the road so much. I think it came to like 298 days out of the year in his prime."
According to the "The Eighth Wonder of the World" biography,
Robin says she believes he would've liked to have been in her life, explaining,
"I fully understand that he couldn't be the father he probably wanted to be."
As you might expect, it took a lot for André the Giant to get even a little tipsy,
let alone anywhere near fully drunk. As the story goes,
the wrestler would often consume more than 100 beers in just one night,
and he reportedly could get through an entire case of wine before entering the ring.
There's also the legend about the doctors who analyzed André's alcohol intake to
try to figure out how much anesthesia to use on him. André supposedly said he could take
down two liters of vodka before feeling anything, so the medical professionals
ran with that. As Richard English recalled in a piece for Modern Drunkard Magazine,
"The [anesthesiologist] was able to extrapolate a correct mixture for André by analyzing his
alcohol intake. It was a medical breakthrough, and the system is still used to this day."
André didn't really drink for leisure, but to deal with his constant physical
discomfort. As his "The Princess Bride" co-star Cary Elwes told the Daily Beast,
"It should be pointed out that André didn't drink for the sake of drinking—André was in
a lot of pain, God bless him. His back was injured from carrying all that weight around,
and from having other wrestlers breaking chairs over his back."
You might think that no one would be foolish enough to poke fun at a man that weighed
approximately 520 pounds and stood over 7 feet, but it apparently happened often with André.
In the HBO documentary "André the Giant," Hulk Hogan spoke of witnessing his former
rival being taunted as they walked together through airports. Legendary interviewer Gene
Okerlund also recalled how André was more sensitive than you may expect:
"You'd never think a guy like that would cry, but he would cry."
In an episode of "The Voice Versus," Hogan reflected on how much André endured, saying,
"He lived in a really cruel world and at the end of the day,
when you really understood what he went through and what he was all about,
he was a really gracious person with a kind heart. But he didn't put up with any B.S."
André the Giant was reportedly first officially diagnosed with acromegaly, a pituitary gland
disorder which causes a dangerous increase in growth hormone, while wrestling in Japan in
the 1970s, and then again in the 1980s. In the HBO documentary about André, Dr. Harris Yett explained
that the condition could have been treated, but André refused any kind of medical help. Not only
did André not want to risk impacting his career, he also feared it would interfere with his faith.
On a 2020 episode of the "Talk is Jericho" podcast,
biographer Pat Laprade dug into André's unwillingness to treat his acromegaly, saying,
"He said God made him this way and he didn't want to change it. And he was also scared that his
dimensions were going to change if he was getting the surgery [...] he felt he would lose what made
him special. I have to think he was misinformed because he would not have changed that much."
In an interview with Playboy, André himself explained how his connection to a higher
power had positively influenced him throughout his life. He said,
"I believe in God. I don't go to church every Sunday,
but I believe in Him. I think He's helped me a lot."
In the HBO "André the Giant" documentary former WWE CEO Vince McMahon gleefully recalled how he
would fabricate stories about André just to add to the mythology and spectacle.
"You could say anything about André, and people would believe it."
McMahon went on to explain that he'd tell people that one of André's rings would be bigger than the
average person's wrist or that the giant had multiple rows of teeth like a shark,
and they'd buy it. Ric Flair revealed that as a result, he could not help but think
about the rumors whenever he came face to face with the late great. He said,
"Every time André talked to me, I'd be looking for that second row of teeth."
Flair went on to add that he believed the legend that André was born with two hearts,
which was an actual rumor that went around.
The moment when Hulk Hogan body slammed André the Giant at Wrestlemania III in 1987 is one of the
defining moments in pro wrestling history. André was 520 pounds at the time; Hogan said he ended up
tearing a back muscle doing the iconic move. André had only just undergone surgery to his back, too.
Throughout the match, André struggled to walk around the ring and had to hold on
to the ropes just to steady himself. But to give the crowd the promised spectacle,
André gave Hogan the green light to bodyslam him. Hogan told Sports Illustrated,
"I tried so hard to give people something
they'd never forget. André passed the torch to me, but he made me earn it."
Improbably, André's wrestling career lasted another five years after that match. Of course,
by that point, the Frenchman was a shell of his former self. His size
and the array of injuries he'd picked up throughout his decades in the ring had
taken a tremendous toll. Fellow wrestler Jake 'The Snake' Roberts told CBS Sports,
"Toward the end, he probably shouldn't have been out there,
but he was so amazing to see. He still put butts in seats. He carried himself well even
though he couldn't walk fast. Him walking slow just made him look that much bigger."
Outside of the ring, connecting with others did not always come easily to
the colossal wrestling star. Though he was known for being a kind and gracious person,
he was also an intimidating figure. He once told Sports Illustrated,
"Often, when I go to the homes of people who have small children,
the children will run from me even though they have seen me on
television. I understand why they do this, but it is a sad feeling for me, even so."
Unfortunately, André was often only seen for his size,
and that could get in the way of his personal life. He told People,
"I don't really have too many friends. People want to be my
friend because of my size. They want to take advantage of me. I don't like that."
That said, the late wrestling legend did form some genuine friendships with his peers in wrestling.
Jake "The Snake" Roberts told CBS Sports that André had high standards, explaining,
"If he didn't have a relationship with you or didn't have something to share with you,
then he didn't waste time with you. A lot of guys would try to brown-nose
him and just make themselves look stupid in front of him. He didn't much care for that."
In January 1993, André the Giant learned that his father was on his
deathbed. The wrestler traveled to France to be there for the funeral,
and decided to stay for a few more days to be there for his mother. Longtime friend
Jackie McAuley told CBS Sports that André was not in good health on the trip, saying,
"I saw pictures of him at his mother's birthday party and I
was shocked. His skin was gray and powdery and his eyes were so deep."
Within just a few days, André's chauffeur found him dead in a hotel room in Paris. His cause of
death was congestive heart failure. Friend Frenchy Bernard told the Los Angeles Times,
"He was lying in his bed when they found him. He just went to sleep and never woke up."
"When you got one true friend like him, that's all you need in this world. A true friend."
Although the family initially planned to bury André next to his dad, they later learned of his
wish to be cremated. His body was subsequently flown to America where his ashes were scattered
at his North Carolina ranch. His daughter Robin was named as the sole beneficiary of his estate.