CUT THE RIBBBON: ANDRE ROUSSIMOFF aka ANDRE THE GIANT

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Editorial Staff

This week’s protagonist wouldn’t cut a ribbon, he would smash it! For two decades (60s-80s), Andre the Giant was the highest paid professional wrestler in the business and a household name across the world. Known as ‘Giant’ or ‘Boss’,  his real name was Andre Roussimoff, born in France from Russian immigrants. After his birth he was diagnosed with acromegaly, which caused his body to over-produce growth hormones. As a result, since his birth, Andre never stopped to grow. Knows as a big good man, he loved two things: wrestling and booze. People would say his drinking was of mythic proportions. As famous as Andre was in the US, he was even bigger in Japan.  His wrestling match were the most seen, the best paid. When ill health forced Andre to largely quit wrestling in the late ‘80s, he accepted the role of Fezzik in Rob Reiner’s movie The Princess Bride. Mr. Roussimoff was also in  the Guinness Book of World Records, not for his size but for the world record of the largest number of beers consumed in a single sitting. Officially crowned “The Greatest Drunk on Earth” it even happened that once, Andre passed out in a hotel bar in Pennsylvania, and because the staff could not move him, they had to leave him there until he regained consciousness. Andre died in his sleep due to congestive heart failure on January 27 1993 in a Paris hotel room. He was there to attend the funeral of his father. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at his ranch in Ellerbe, North Carolina. Sorry Hulk, you won that match, but Andre was THE GIANT!