Legendary drinking, constant stares: Andre the Giantโs tortured life
nypost.com/2015/04/02/legendary-drinking-constant-stares-andre-the-giants-tortured-life/In the 1980s era of professional wrestling, there was no bigger star โ both physically and perhaps in terms of popularity โ than Andre the Giant.
Riding the wave of celebrity generated by his role as Fezzik in the film โThe Princess Bride,โ Andre would pack out arenas wherever he went.
While his larger-than-life personality and impressive athleticism were all part of Andreโs draw, there was one key reason people bought tickets to see him โ his freakish size.
New interviews with those who knew him best reveal the enormous proportions of a man born Andre Roussimoff were both a blessing and a curse.
โHe used to tell me, โIโd like to be you for a week,โโ former wrestling referee and close friend Tim White recently told CBSSports.com. โBecause he just couldnโt not be seen or be gawked at.โ
Only through the recollections of Andreโs wrestling colleagues can we begin to understand the physical torment and mental anguish he endured.
Born in France in 1946 to a mother who was around 5 feet tall, Andre was raised in a village about 40 miles east of Paris.
He was 5-foot-10 at age 12, more than 6-foot-10 when he was 18 and wore size 26 shoes.
His ultra-deep voice and athletic prowess โ coupled with his size โ made him an ideal candidate for a professional wrestling career.
After first touring Japan under the moniker Monster Roussimoff, Andre was signed by current WWE owner Vince McMahonโs father in the early 1970s.
But transporting Andre from town to town was a difficult task, as fellow wrestler Jake โThe Snakeโ Roberts recalled.
โI remember there was a big van and they put a beanbag chair in it, and he crawled up in there and plopped in,โ Roberts told CBS.
The cause of Andreโs otherworldly size was a condition known as acromegaly, which results in the anterior pituitary gland producing excess growth hormone.
Andre was first told of the syndrome in Japan in the 1970s, and while he had fluid drained to relieve pressure on his heart in the early 1980s, he refused to have an operation to reverse his condition.
โIf this is the size that God wanted me to be, Iโm going to be this size,โ he reportedly said.
Andreโs billed weight during his time with the WWE was 530 pounds. But Hulk Hogan, who famously defeated Andre for the first time at WrestleMania III, said Andre was far north of that.
โHe was never 500 pounds โฆ we weighed him at Detroit airport before WrestleMania III and he was 650 or something. He was big, heโd just had back surgery and he was heavy,โ Hogan told Grantlandโs Bill Simmons.
โHis weight varied. It would be like you gaining 20 or 30 pounds, Andre would gain a hundred and itโs no big deal.โ
Hogan experienced Andreโs massive weight firsthand when he tore his biceps lifting the giant during the match.
Without early treatment, most acromegaly sufferers experience early deaths as their body and organs deteriorate.
Andre found his own way to ease the pain โ alcohol.
Tales of his drinking capacity are legendary, with several people witnessing him knocking back 100 beers in a sitting.
โObviously for a man his size, he could drink a lot,โ said wrestler Ted DiBiase, โThe Million Dollar Man.โ
โHe hated pills, medicine, and painkillers and stuff, because he saw what it was doing to other guys. So the way Andre killed his pain and medicated himself was with booze.โ
Andre would escape to the anonymity of his cattle ranch in North Carolina, where he had a custom-built shower and oversized chairs and loved playing cribbage and watching movies like his favorite โGone With The Wind.โ
Staying out of the spotlight โ and the gawking of strangers โ was where he found peace.
โHe was kind of a lonely guy,โ fellow wrestler Jim Duggan said.
โPeople would make fun of him and point at him and the size of his rear end, and sโt like that,โ Roberts said. โIt makes you sick that people are so shallow. I donโt know, man. Itโs just messed up that they would laugh at this guy.โ
โI mean, he was just so big, and wherever he went, everybody would make a fuss out of him. It was a hard life for a guy like that. Just sitting in the airplane seats or flying to Japan, you know, thereโs no way he could get into the bathroom of an airplane.โ
In 1993, Andre traveled back to France to be with his ill father, Boris. Andre died of heart failure days after arriving. He was 46.
In his will, heโd expressed his wishes to be cremated, but according to CBSSports.com, there wasnโt a crematorium big enough to handle the job, so his body was flown back to the US.
Later that year, he was the inaugural inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame.