Legendary drinking, constant stares: Andre the Giant's tortured life
By Jai Bednall
In the 1980s era of professional wrestling there was no bigger star - both physically and perhaps in terms of popularity - than Andre the Giant.
Riding the wave of celebrity generated by his role as Fezzik in the film "The Princess Bride," Andre would pack out arenas wherever he went.
While his larger-than-life personality and impressive athleticism were all part of Andre's draw, there was one key reason people bought tickets to see him - 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.
"He used to tell me, 'I'd like to be you for a week,'" former wrestling referee and close friend Tim White recently told CBSSports.com. "Because he just couldn't not be seen or be gawked at."
Only through the recollections of Andre's 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 - coupled with his size - 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 McMahon's father in the early 1970s.
But transporting Andre from town to town was a difficult task, as fellow wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts recalled.
"I remember there was a big van and they put a beanbag chair in it, and he crawled up in there and plopped in," Roberts told CBS.
The cause of Andre's other-worldly 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.
"If this is the size that God wanted me to be, I'm going to be this size," he reportedly said.
Andre's 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.
"He was never 500 pounds we weighed him at Detroit airport before WrestleMania III and he was 650 or something. He was big, he'd just had back surgery and he was heavy," Hogan told Grantland's Bill Simmons.
"His weight varied. It would be like you gaining 20 or 30 pounds, Andre would gain a 100 and it's no big deal."
Hogan experienced Andre's massive weight first-hand 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 - alcohol.
Tales of his drinking capacity are legendary with several people witnessing him knock back 100 beers in a sitting.
"Obviously for a man his size, he could drink a lot," wrestler Ted DiBiase - "The Million Dollar Man" - said.
"He 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."
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 played scribbage and watching movies like his favorite "Gone With The Wind."
Staying out of the spotlight - and the gawking of strangers - was where he found peace.
"People would make fun of him and point at him and the size of his rear-end, and s-t like that," Roberts said. "It makes you sick that people are so shallow. I don't know, man. It's just messed up that they would laugh at this guy."
"He was kind of a lonely guy," fellow wrestler Jim Duggan said. "I 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, there's no way he could get into the bathroom of an airplane."
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 he'd expressed his wishes to be cremated but according to CBSSports.com there wasn't 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.
By Jai Bednall
In the 1980s era of professional wrestling there was no bigger star - both physically and perhaps in terms of popularity - than Andre the Giant.
Riding the wave of celebrity generated by his role as Fezzik in the film "The Princess Bride," Andre would pack out arenas wherever he went.
While his larger-than-life personality and impressive athleticism were all part of Andre's draw, there was one key reason people bought tickets to see him - 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.
"He used to tell me, 'I'd like to be you for a week,'" former wrestling referee and close friend Tim White recently told CBSSports.com. "Because he just couldn't not be seen or be gawked at."
Only through the recollections of Andre's 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 - coupled with his size - 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 McMahon's father in the early 1970s.
But transporting Andre from town to town was a difficult task, as fellow wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts recalled.
"I remember there was a big van and they put a beanbag chair in it, and he crawled up in there and plopped in," Roberts told CBS.
The cause of Andre's other-worldly 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.
"If this is the size that God wanted me to be, I'm going to be this size," he reportedly said.
Andre's 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.
"He was never 500 pounds we weighed him at Detroit airport before WrestleMania III and he was 650 or something. He was big, he'd just had back surgery and he was heavy," Hogan told Grantland's Bill Simmons.
"His weight varied. It would be like you gaining 20 or 30 pounds, Andre would gain a 100 and it's no big deal."
Hogan experienced Andre's massive weight first-hand 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 - alcohol.
Tales of his drinking capacity are legendary with several people witnessing him knock back 100 beers in a sitting.
"Obviously for a man his size, he could drink a lot," wrestler Ted DiBiase - "The Million Dollar Man" - said.
"He 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."
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 played scribbage and watching movies like his favorite "Gone With The Wind."
Staying out of the spotlight - and the gawking of strangers - was where he found peace.
"People would make fun of him and point at him and the size of his rear-end, and s-t like that," Roberts said. "It makes you sick that people are so shallow. I don't know, man. It's just messed up that they would laugh at this guy."
"He was kind of a lonely guy," fellow wrestler Jim Duggan said. "I 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, there's no way he could get into the bathroom of an airplane."
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 he'd expressed his wishes to be cremated but according to CBSSports.com there wasn't 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.
