Andre the Giant, whose real name is Andre Roussimoff, grew up in France, per the WWE. He was diagnosed with a form of gigantism called acromegaly, which caused an excess of growth hormones. At 12 years old, Roussimoff stood at 6 feet 3 inches and weighed 300 pounds. This caused his family issues as the young boy was deemed too tall and big to ride the school bus. According to The Mary Sue, help came from an unlikely source.
Samuel Beckett, Nobel Prize winner for Literature most known for Waiting for Godot, lived near the Roussimoffs. Roussimoff's father helped build Beckett's cottage, and the writer offered to drive the young boy to school in payment. It's not a surprise that Andre the Giant had many lessons to give children like Johnson, possibly because of Beckett's influence.
Wrestling had just begun making rounds across France when an 18-year-old Roussimoff decided to give it a shot. For the first time, his size was an advantage. Roussimoff, of course, became a massive wrestling star. He cultivated a rivalry with another superstar, Hulk Hogan, and saw a streak of winning matches from the 1970s until the early 1980s.
Roussimoff is also one of the first professional wrestlers to become a crossover success, moving beyond the ring. Most non-wrestling fans know Andre the Giant from the movie The Princess Bride, where he played the lovable giant Fezzik. It's no surprise that his protégé Johnson followed in his footsteps.
