Andre the Giant left behind an indelible legacy;
those who knew him would never forget their final moments with the legendary wrestler.
Few wrestling match-ups were as iconic as the
rivalry between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, and in 2023,
Hulk Hogan talked about his experiences with Andre. He shared with A&E's "WWE Rivals,"
"I remember the first time I saw Andre the Giant. I just remember looking at
his leg ... it looked like the hip and asset of a Clydesdale. I was like ... Oh. My. God."
Andre and Hulk Hogan went toe-to-toe on March 29, 1987, and that was the day everyone watched
with breathless anticipation. The idea was that Andre — all 500-plus pounds of him — was going
to be body-slammed, and it almost didn't happen. At the time, Andre was already in extraordinary,
chronic pain that necessitated a back brace. Not only could he not help the Hulkster pick him up,
but he needed carefully crafted breaks in between moves. One wrong move, fall,
or slam could have had devastating consequences.
The feud was legendary, sure, but outside of the ring, the two warmed up to each
other. Hulk Hogan credited Andre with lending credibility to him in what he
called "such a beautiful storyline." In the same retrospective, Hulk Hogan reflected on the end
of Andre's life. Tearing up and needing to pause before continuing, he shared,
"He just didn't know what to do with himself. He goes, 'I'm still living,
but I don't feel like living anymore.' He passed shortly after that."
Feuding is the name of the game in wrestling, and it turns out that's pretty true for what
goes on behind the scenes, too. Disagreements between Andre the Giant and Vince McMahon are
well-publicized and the stuff of entertainment legend. At the time of Andre's death,
they were still on the outs. As Bruce Prichard discussed on his podcast,
"Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard," McMahon and Andre had been incredibly good
friends — but the better the friends, the worse the fallout. As he observed,
"I think there was a little bit of regret that hadn't been completely rectified,
and he didn't have the opportunity to say goodbye to his friend."
In "Andre the Giant: A Legendary Life," Vince
McMahon recalled seeing Andre toward the end of his life.
"In the later days, Andre drank even more and internalized even more. He wasn't on the road
anymore, so he felt like he had no value. I think that really got to him. Andre had an ego,
and a good one. When it looked like he no longer had any value,
I think that weighed on him more than anything else."
When interviewers for an HBO documentary asked McMahon about the last time he spoke with Andre,
he admitted that he couldn't specifically remember. He did,
however, say that he tended to deal with negative experiences by locking them away
and compartmentalizing things. He teared up as he explained,
"If something hurts me, I get rid of it. [...] He was special."
Canadian wrestler and headliner Gino Brito spent a lot of time with Andre the Giant,
telling the Bleacher Report that he always had a bit of a fatalistic
attitude. They were traveling across Quebec together when he asked if Andre really,
truly felt the need to drink as much as he did. His response was heartbreaking:
"Who cares? In a few more years, I'll be gone anyway."
Brito recalled the point when Andre showed a true
interest in something else outside of wrestling: his North Carolina ranch.
"I go to North Carolina. I've got a house in North Carolina."
Brito described it as "a place for a giant to live." He added that it was the sanctuary
Andre retreated to and that he relished the chance to live a life out of the spotlight.
Still, life there wasn't as comfortable as he might have wished. Brito recalled
seeing Andre during his final days and that each time he saw him, things were a little bit worse.
"He knew that, eventually, something would give out. His legs were swelling up like crazy. I don't
know if he had gout or diabetes. His forehead was thickening. He was uncomfortable. He didn't
like for anyone to see him with a cane, but just to walk to the ring was painful."
In spite of the discomfort, Brito said he refused to see a doctor:
"He said, 'I'll just keep going, then I'll drop dead."
Referee Tim White was in the ring — and in the middle of the action — for many
of wrestling's biggest matches. But before he was a referee, he was one of Andre the Giant's
handlers. More than that, he was a friend, and he participated in Michael Krugman's biography,
"Andre the Giant: A Legendary Life." It was heartbreaking stuff,
and he recalled the last time he saw Andre. He had been traveling for work,
and although Andre's North Carolina ranch wasn't really on the way, he stopped to see him.
"When I pulled away from the ranch I was crying like a baby,
'cause he looked so bad. He could barely hide his pain."
He, of course, didn't know it was the last time. He also recalled getting the
phone call saying that Andre had already left for France and his father's funeral:
"I'm thinking how hard it was going to be for him to make the trip,
because of the way I saw him physically."
Still, when he got the follow-up phone call that Andre, too, had passed away, it was a shock.
"I was devastated. I went numb. I went to my bar, the Friendly Tap,
the place was closed, and had a few beers, just staring into space."
Andre the Giant was famously diagnosed with acromegaly, a condition in which the pituitary
gland produces too much growth hormone. This results in parts of the body growing too big,
too fast. It's incredibly rare — and often treatable — and according to
the National Institutes of Health, it results in a slew of complications.
Even the hotel, I can't go through the door, I can't go to the bathroom."
While Andre's "The Princess Bride" co-star Cary Elwes hasn't discussed his final meeting
with his friend, he has talked about the fact that while they were filming,
Andre knew he was nearing the end of his life.
He's also talked about the incredible attitude Andre carried with him,
telling The Hollywood Reporter,
"He knew he was dying. And so because of that, he cherished every moment. And he helped teach
me that, about being present and grateful. When he shared with me that he knew he was going to die,
I just about fell apart. But he always had a smile on his face. And I think he knew 'the' secret."
In his book, "As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride," Elwes
recalled overhearing Andre telling Billy Crystal,
"We don't get such a good break, the little guys and the big guys. We don't live so long."
But he also shared conversations with Andre's friends and family,
who said that even in the traveling he did in his final years, he would
always sneak into any theater showing "The Princess Bride," and cherish the experience.
Wrestling mainstay John Laurinaitis — better known by his stage name, Johnny Ace — recalled
Andre the Giant's final wrestling matches in Japan. Up into the very final years of his life,
he was still doing a series of appearances there. And they were really appearances,
because, by that time, he wasn't physically capable of doing much more than that. But,
it was awe-inspiring. As he recalled in "Andre the Giant: A Legendary Life,"
"People loved him like a god over in Japan [...] The fans had such an appreciation and respect for
what they did in the business, it wasn't about what they actually could do in the ring today."
Laurinaitis recounted stories of how he was paired with Giant Baba, and how the fans went
wild when the two entered the ring. By the end of 1992, Andre was no longer able to participate.
Fans of wrestling and particularly of Andre the Giant know the name Frenchy Bernard;
after starting out as a wrestler in his own right, he gained more fame
as a referee and later as Andre's handler. Bernard and his then-wife, Jackie McAuley,
were some of the few people that Andre confided in when he was first diagnosed with acromegaly,
including his reasons for refusing treatment. McAuley told CBS,
"He said, 'If this is the size that God wanted me to be, I'm going to be this size."
"It's not my fault being the biggest and the strongest."
McAuley told StarNews Online that just before Andre died, he was excited about a new movie
role that had been offered to him: He was slated to star in a version of "Jack and the Beanstalk."
After returning to France for his father's funeral, Andre stayed for his mother's birthday,
and then he passed away. McAuley recalled that they'd spent some time with him before he'd left,
and she'd been admonishing him for putting on weight. When she later
saw pictures of him that had been taken at his mother's birthday party, she said,
"I was shocked. His skin was gray and powdery and his eyes were so deep."
McAuley flew to France to claim his body, and when she returned, she found he'd left a parting gift:
A delivery of wine he'd ordered that his friends used to toast to his memory.
At 2019's Steel City Con, Wallace Shawn got candid about just how proud Andre
had been of "The Princess Bride," in spite of his on-set struggles. Shawn explained,
"He couldn't do feats of strength that people thought he could do, and he could have done
10 years earlier because he was losing his strength. He was very, very sweet and lovely.
And I think he was really enjoying it, and then enjoying the fact that he was doing a great job."
Mandy Patinkin, too, has said that he still carried some important lessons
away from his friendship with Andre the Giant. He recalled via NPR his seemingly
infinite kindness, which was made even more apparent as they wrapped shooting.
"The movie was over, the final shot was made, and we stayed around for two, three,
four, five hours while every person, every grown-up and their family came by, waited in
line like children at Disneyland to stand with Andre and have their photograph taken. And he
took his photograph with every single person that asked. And it was a lesson of a lifetime for me."