André the Giant

Andre the Giant was a television curiosity for me during my 'wrestling saturday' heyday over at Mortimo Gleaton's house in Perry, SC sitting there with him and his son (my friend) Ricky during high school.

I really enjoyed those times because I thought it all was real I wanted to believe.

Yes there was a time I didn't feel that wrestling was mostly theatrics and that the personalities and athletes were anything other than blood thirsty hand to hand combat fighters to the end.

And yes, when they applied for membership to the actors guild it was just ... heartbreaking for me. I was so naieve.

Andre the Giant was born André René Roussimoff on May 19, 1946. He passed from congestive heart failure in his sleep on January 27, 1993 but during his lifetime he was quite a character to behold.

Standing around seven feet tall from pituitary giantism we loomed above many in his presence. I never got over the theatrics part of it all and lost interested in wrestling so by the time Cyndi Lauper and the rest of the "mostly show business" individuals took over I had been moved on for years.

He was an actor in his own right and I was sad when I learned he had passed away. However, pop culture never having been my forte I was unable to dwell on those things as I was pursuing matters of work and simply had no time outside my 80 hour work week. However, I would always take pause to view some televised tidit about André René Roussimoff, a gentle giant of a man who lived his life to the fullest.