Andre The Giant Had A Crazy Life, And He Would Have Been 70 Today
Andre the Giant — birth name André René Roussimoff — lived a pretty interesting life considering that he only made it to the age of 46, and today marks what would have been his 70th birthday.
Andre the Giant was a professional wrestler and actor who’d been born in France, and left his house for the first time at the age of 14. When he came back home a mere five years later however, he had grown so much that his parents didn’t even recognize who he was when they answered the door, reported Sports Illustrated.
A different Sports Illustrated article pointed out that at the age of 17, Andre the Giant was spotted at the gym where he’d been working out by a couple of professional wrestlers, and that when one of them was injured in a match he was asked to substitute in, which is how he first started his professional wrestling career.
Andre the Giant was also a pretty legendary drinker. In fact, he drank so much an acquaintance of his once said the following.
“I can report with confidence that his capacity for alcohol is extraordinary. During the week or so I was with him, his average daily consumption was a case or so of beer; a total of two bottles of wine, generally French, with his meals; six or eight shots of brandy, usually Courvoisier or Napolèon, though sometimes Calvados; half a dozen standard mixed drinks, such as Bloody Marys or Screwdrivers; and the odd glass of Pernod. He drinks as many Frenchmen drink — throughout the day — and he takes genuine comfort in his drinking, seemingly in agreement with the line from Housman that ‘Malt does more than Milton can/ To justify God’s ways to man.’ But during the time I was with Andre, never once did I see him give any indication that the alcohol was affecting him.”
Andre the Giant suffered from a condition called gigantism, which is usually caused by a hormone deficiency in the pituitary gland, and besides for the obvious effect of making the sufferer much larger than most human beings, it can also have complications ranging from an extremely prominent forehead and jaw line, to voice changes, double vision, issues sleeping, and gaps between your teeth, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. For woman, symptoms also include irregular periods, and sporadic release of breast milk.
Get a glimpse at #AndreTheGiant in action, and explore his illustrious career on @WWENetwork! #HappyBirthdayAndrehttps://t.co/sJ23vQmjMH
— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) May 19, 2016
One of the most quintessential periods in professional wresting history is the feud between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan. Andre the Giant had received an award, and up to this point had been friendly with Hogan. When Hogan approached Andre the Giant to congratulate him however, Andre the Giant walked away. A title match was finally set up in 1988 when Andre the Giant met Hulk Hogan on an interview segment called Pipers Pit. The interview went down in good old WWF fashion, as Andre the Giant had ripped both Hogans shirt and crucifix off of his person before the end, says about.com.
Other acting roles — besides for those in professional wrestling — included appearances on the television series Zorro, and a role in Conan the Destroyer, says IMDB.
Andre the Giant passed away of congenital heart failure in 1993, which was most likely a side effect of his gigantism, since another symptom of gigantism is an enlarged heart. An enlarged heart may have difficulty pumping blood effectively as it is, but add the sheer size of Andre the Giant and you see just how hard this man’s heart may have had to work throughout his lifetime.
Whether you like Andre the Giant, professional wrestling, and/or The Princess Bride, nobody can deny that this man had a very interesting life, and is a prominent example of where life can take you if you let it.
[AP Photo/Ray Stubblebine]
