André the Giant has been the subject of everything from street art to tee shirts and documentaries.
His impressive mass and abilities inspired fear, awe, and curiosity everywhere he went,
along with mythical stories that defy belief.
From the moment of birth, André René Roussimoff was notable for his size. When he was born
on May 19, 1946, he weighed over 13 pounds, or the average weight of a four-month old
baby.
Despite his large size, André was a normal kid who spent his childhood helping his parents
manage their farm in their pastoral hometown of Molien, France. The Roussimoff family's
humble farming life left little room for luxury or extravagance. The children got oranges
instead of toys for Christmas, and walked the mile-and-a-half to and from school unless
someone in the village was around to drive them.
One of those people was the famous Irish novelist, playwright, and Nobel Prize laureate Samuel
Beckett, who moved to France in 1937.
André was loved and happy at home, but he wanted something more than a farmer's life.
Genetics and fate would grant him his wish.
"I use what God gave me. I'm not supernatural. I'm just myself."
The human body has numerous checks and balances to maintain stasis, but they don't always
function properly. When a person's pituitary gland produces too much growth hormone, it
results in a condition known as acromegaly. It's an incredibly rare condition, the most
obvious symptom of which is gigantism, which results in excess height and girth, especially
in the hands and feet, as well as enlarged facial features.
Some less obvious symptoms include sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes,
arthritis, heart enlargement, spinal cord compression, and an increased risk of colon
cancer, among other ailments. It sounds like a constant, painful, never-ending fight with
gravity, especially for a physical performer.
Precisely when André became aware of his condition remains unknown. It's possible he
learned about his condition as early as 1970, while wrestling in Japan with a fellow wrestler
who also had the disorder. But the official diagnosis may have come as late as 1981, when
André's body was starting to succumb to later stages of the illness.
Regardless, André chose to leave his condition untreated, fearing any treatment would compromise
his career and lifestyle. This decision sealed his fate. Acromegaly has more than a 50 percent
success rate via surgery, but when left untreated, it can result in premature death, often before
the age of 45.
At age 14, André took one step closer to destiny when he stopped attending school to
start working full-time. Rumor has led many to believe he dropped out due to his large
size, but nothing could be further from the truth, he was never the bookish type, and
left because French children weren't required to attend school past that age.
He spent the next few years lugging 250-pound sacks of grain around the family farm and
working odd jobs at factories and delivering goods in neighboring villages. It was during
this time André had a chance encounter with the man who would launch his wrestling career,
the coach and promoter Robert Lageat.
When Lageat encountered André while working in the small village of La Ferté-sous-Jouarre,
André was only 18 years-old, yet already over six-and-a-half feet tall and more than
250 pounds. Lageat saw a future wrestling star in the young man, and offered to train
him at his school in Paris.
"One day when a wrestler was hurt, and they didn't know who could take his place, then
they called me. I said, 'I can't do that, I've never been in a ring in my life.'"
The year was 1965, and it would be a challenging one for the Giant. He didn't earn any money
training, and sometimes resorted to sleeping in the Paris metro stations. As a way to make
ends meet, André took on more jobs that complimented his size, including offering protection to
prostitutes in the area's "red light" district.
After a year of hard work, André had his first official wrestling match on January
25, 1966. He proved to be a natural talent. Successful wrestlers aren't just skilled athletes,
they're superb actors, and André was excellent at appearing menacing and even larger than
he already was.
People believed he was capable of mass destruction, partly because he wrestled under the name
"Jean Ferré", which was an homage to a mythical French lumberjack known as "le Grand Ferré,"
who killed 85 adversaries using only his axe.
Just two weeks after the launch of his wrestling career, André had his first televised match.
He struck a lean figure, and wrestled in a very technical style, full of hip tosses and
head scissors, that would be almost unrecognizable to fans later in North America.
André's popularity followed him around France, then on to other parts of Europe. In 1969,
he made his debut in the U.K., followed shortly thereafter by Africa, Japan, and the Middle
East, then moving on to Montreal to expand his career into the Americas.
At the time, he had reached a reported height of 7'4", and was also said to weigh 390 pounds.
As with a lot of wrestlers, those numbers might be exaggerated. Wrestling Observer newsletter
editor Dave Metlzer told the LA Times in 1993 that André was 6’11 at
his tallest - however there’s no actual height documentation on record - regardless,
what is known is his career blew up even further when he relocated to Canada in 1971. That
same year, his rapidly expanding fame brought him to even more countries for the first time,
including New Zealand and the United States.
Despite his massive size, André always did his best to avoid confrontation. This was
evident from the beginning of his career, when, according to the Andre biography The
Eighth Wonder of the World, he made a respectful request to a veteran opponent, saying,
"If I'm clumsy, forgive me, and please, don't hurt me!"
As his reputation grew, he found himself in a position of leadership in the locker room.
Wrestling was a very gruff, rough and tumble sort of industry in the '60s, '70s, and '80s,
full of cutthroat individuals looking to encroach on each other's territories and promotions.
André enjoyed the camaraderie that came with pro wrestling, however, and is remembered
for being friendly, caring, and generous. Those close to him also came to know André
as a sensitive fellow who tired of the constant, inescapable stares, and harassment from strangers.
Unlike other superstars, André couldn't hide under a coat and hat. He was instantly recognizable
and stood out easily everywhere he went, leaving him with few places he could seek privacy
and solitude.
André was pivoted even further into the limelight when he transcended wrestling and launched
his movie career. His fairytale size made him idyllic for fantastical roles when special
effects technology was more limited.
One memorable example was when he was cast as a howling Sasquatch in The Six Million
Dollar Man.
André became most known for his role as the gentle and friendly Fezzik the Giant in The
Princess Bride in 1987, a role that gave his amiable personality an opportunity to shine
alongside his physical prowess. His sweet smile and silly comebacks are a huge reason
for the film's status as a perennial favorite among generations of viewers.
"It's not my fault being the biggest and the strongest. I don't even exercise."
While André's career blossomed, so too did the many legends that would follow him the
rest of his short life.
Although he started his career as a light drinker, by the time he reached his peak,
his drinking capacity was particularly noteworthy. On ESPN's Dan Le Batard Show, Ric Flair recounted
a 14-hour flight from Chicago to Tokyo when André drank their commercial flight dry of
vodka. He reportedly racked up a $40,000 bar tab while working on set of The Princess Bride.
Hulk Hogan has claimed he saw André consume a case of wine in three hours.
Sadly, as the years wore on, André's extreme drinking habits were driven more by his deteriorating
condition rather than his desire to party. At his heaviest, André was billed at a whopping
550 pounds, a far cry from the slim, technical-style wrestler who preferred dairy to alcohol.
As his pain grew more unbearable, André sought ways to escape it. However, after seeing other
wrestlers succumb to addiction, he avoided using prescription painkillers and compensated
with what he felt was the lesser of evils, pushing onward through a haze of agony and
booze.
André's unusual size also severely limited his mobility in ways few ever have to consider.
Unless it was custom-made to his dimensions, nothing ever fit. Everyday items, like chairs,
beds, toilets, airplane seats, shoes, cars...imagine the discomfort André experienced throughout
his life, everywhere he went.
On top of the inconveniences he experienced due to acromegaly, the condition also caused
Andre continuous and ever-worsening pain, especially in his knees, back, and neck. His
joints just couldn't handle the weight of all that mass, and his fatigue and other symptoms
got worse along with the pain. Things were so bad, he required the assistance of cables
to catch Robin Wright during a pivotal scene in The Princess Bride.
"He wasn't that well during the course of the movie. I always thought the hard part
would be his performance. But the wrestling was the hardest thing for him!"
In 1981, he broke his ankle, and saw the writing on the wall. His wrestling days were numbered,
and he knew it. He didn't even know how long he had to live. He shared the information
with Vince McMahon, Jr., with whom he'd developed a relationship over the years; taking his
confidence sincerely, McMahon offered André an opportunity for the perfect culmination
to his legendary career.
While André was busy developing his wrestling career, the industry was also evolving significantly.
This was thanks in large part to Vince McMahon, Jr., a legend in his own right, not just in
pro wrestling, but cable television and business in general.
He was the first wrestling owner to see beyond local territories and envision a world united
under one brand. After an aggressive and controversial takeover of surrounding territories, McMahon
succeeded in launching the World Wrestling Federation. Not only was he the first to unite
American territories, he also revolutionized the concept of pay-per-view television through
featured buy-ins like WrestleMania. At just a few years of operation, McMahon was determined
to solidify the WWF's staying power. He conceived of a main event for the upcoming WrestleMania
III that would do that very thing, Hulk Hogan vs. André the Giant.
Prior to that point, André had always played a good guy, or "babyface," in wrestling vernacular,
and was longtime friends with Hogan. It would be the first time in André's WWF career that
he was scripted to lose a match, as well as play a bad guy, otherwise known as a "heel."
André lost to Hogan - with the Hulkster famously scooping up André and
bodyslamming him, and Hogan became an even bigger international star.
Of course, without André's willingness to cooperate with this grand plan, Hogan would
never be able to lift The Giant - Andre played his part to help all of Wrestling - as he
always did.
Throughout the course of his career, André's public image was protected, and he rarely
discussed his health candidly, so his visible deterioration was shocking.
Hulk Hogan even choreographed every
move of their history-making match to complement André's remaining strength and limit the
stress on his back and joints.
Post-WrestleMania, André's condition continued to worsen rapidly. After attempting to continue
his wrestling career as a guest commentator, André officially retired in 1992. He returned
to his roots, living a quiet life on a ranch in a village in Richmond County, North Carolina,
until he passed away on January 27, 1993. In a sad twist of fate, he was visiting Paris
to attend his father's funeral when he passed.
Later that year, André became the first inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame, where his legacy
will continue to inspire fans for generations to come.
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