Andre the Giant Page #5

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This guy was very sensitive.

People never saw

that side of him.

But he told me, he says,

"You know, boss,

sometimes they laugh at me,

they point at me,

it hurts my feelings."

He would cry.

You'd never think a guy

like that would cry,

but he would cry.

Shoemaker:

He's recognizable as

any sports star of the time.

This before the heyday

of the NBA

or, you know, of the NFL.

You can compare him

to Ali,

you can compare him

to Michael Jordan later on.

Muhammad Ali could put

on a trench coat and a ball cap.

Andr the Giant couldn't

hide in the back seat of a car.

Andr couldn't go anywhere.

No, think about it,

where could he go

in New York City right now

and sit down

and have a drink...

without people bugging him?

People would not

leave him alone.

You're always gonna

be bothered.

People are always going

to be pulling on your sleeve,

touching your hand,

wanting to take a picture.

He was conscious of not being

able to, kind of, hide.

He mentioned to me once that

he'd be so grateful

if he could have

one day a week

in which "I can

just walk around

and I'll be the size

of a normal man.

I could go to a movie,

I could get into a cab,

I could have my own car,

a normal car."

White:

On more than one occasion

he said,

"I wish I could be you

just for a weekend."

The only place he was really,

really comfortable

was when we got home

to the ranch.

Jackie McAuley:

In Charlotte, where

the Crockett promotion was,

he became friends with

a guy that lived there

who was from Ellerbe.

So, they would come

to Ellerbe to visit.

And he liked the town,

and so he decided

to buy the house.

My husband at the time,

Frenchie,

he had met Andr

when Andr was in Louisiana.

He called up and he asked

if we wanted to move up

and take care of his house,

that he had a house in Ellerbe,

and he wanted us to live there.

He told me that it reminded him

of France and the little town

that he grew up in.

He could just come here

and be himself.

He could go

to a convenience store,

which he couldn't do

in the real world.

I don't know of anybody

that even came up and said,

"Can I have your autograph?"

or "Can I take your picture?"

He would spend time

cutting trees and chopping wood

and the type of things

that he used to do

on his family's farm.

McAuley:

Don't you run into me!

- ( laughing )

- Make me jump.

McAuley:

We were like

a surrogate family.

He didn't know

if he'd ever find somebody

that could put up with

the traveling that he does.

Before we even moved into

the house, he told me

that he had a daughter.

And, you know, that

she lived on the West Coast.

Robin Christensen:

I knew from day one

who my dad was.

So yeah, I totally noticed

that he was not around.

I knew what he was doing.

I knew he was

on the road wrestling.

Whenever they came to town,

my mom would take me.

He would come out after doing

his thing in the ring,

and we'd spend time together,

I'd sit on his lap.

My parents didn't really

stay in communication

with each other.

My mom didn't want me raised

around wrestling,

and from what I understand,

my dad didn't really want

that either.

I think he was a good man.

It's a grueling industry.

I totally get that.

I fully understand that

he couldn't be the father

he probably wanted to be.

I do forgive him

for not being there

when I wish

he would have been,

but at the same time,

you know, the hurt comes back.

White:

He wanted to be part

of her life,

but it just

didn't work out that way.

And, um...

it hurt him.

A lot of things hurt him,

just like they hurt you or me.

Morley Safer:

Andr Roussimoff,

known to his public

as Andr the Giant.

He's well over seven feet tall,

weighs almost 500 pounds,

and has made a tidy living

on the pro wrestling circuit.

As a child in France,

his body produced

too much hormone naturally,

which not only made him taller

but enlarged all of his organs

and distorted his features.

It is a condition

called Acromegaly,

and its signs

are unmistakable.

The condition

can be corrected

if diagnosed

at an early age.

I use what God give me.

I'm not supernatural,

I'm just myself.

So what God give me,

I use it to make a living.

Gino Brito:

He knew that he wouldn't

live to be 100. Right?

And he knew,

so he didn't care.

He says, "When I get to

the bump in the road,

I'll fall and that's it."

His philosophy was that,

you know, the Lord made him

the way that is he is

and, you know, that's how

he was going to live his life.

He never went to the doctor

until he broke his ankle.

Dr. Harris Yett:

He came into my office

in the early '80s

with an injury

of the ankle.

I'd never heard of him.

He was new to me,

and so my first impression was

this is the about

biggest guy I've ever seen.

As he came through

the door,

the room

temporarily darkened.

It was surprising

he was walking.

It was the sort of fracture

that people don't usually

walk on.

Made measures to get him

into the hospital

to fix the ankle.

He had the features

of gigantism,

or the technical term

is acromegaly.

Some features of his

appearance, his forehead,

his nose was large,

his jaw was large.

His ankle bones were

as a large as

an average man's knee bones,

for instance.

So I suspected this was

a pituitary tumor acromegaly.

Hehir:

In Andr's condition

at the time,

would the disease

have been treatable?

That was my impression

from the endocrinologist.

Treatable to a degree,

not reversible, but maybe

arrestable.

He decided that he didn't want

treatment at that time

because he thought it would

interfere with his career

as a wrestler.

Okerlund:

Andr initially didn't realize

that he had acromegaly.

When he was informed,

the commission doctors at

Madison Square Garden told me

he's gonna be lucky

to live to be 40.

He refused, though,

the medical help.

He refused a lot

of medical help

during the course

of his lifetime.

McMahon:

There used to be a 10-pound

cast on this size 22 foot.

Shoemaker:

An ankle injury is never

a small deal.

But career-wise, the injury

was a really big deal

for Andr too.

Because while he was recovering

and getting back to action,

the pro wrestling world

was going through a sort

of seismic shift.

The Hulk Hogan era

was starting in earnest

under the watchful eye

of Vincent K. McMahon.

So in the early '80s,

Vince buys out his dad

and embarks upon

this program

of national conquest

of professional wrestling.

He realized that with the rise

of cable television,

he could turn the WWF

from a northeastern

wrestling promotion

into the first

national promotion.

Meltzer:

Vince took over in '82

and he decided he was

gonna go national.

He had his local television

that he taped in Allentown

and Hamburg, Pennsylvania,

and then Vince would send that

tape all over North America.

Hello everybody,

Vince McMahon here

at ringside

welcoming you to another

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