Andre the Giant left behind an indelible legacy; those who knew him would never forget their final moments with the legendary wrestler.
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00:00Andre the Giant left behind an indelible legacy.
00:04Those who knew him would never forget their final moments with the legendary wrestler.
00:09Few wrestling matchups were as iconic as the rivalry between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant,
00:14and in 2023, Hulk Hogan talked about his experiences with Andre.
00:18He shared with A&E's WWE Rivals,
00:21I remember the first time I saw Andre the Giant.
00:24I just remember looking at his leg.
00:26It looked like the hip and asset of a Clydesdale.
00:29I was like, oh my god.
00:32Andre and Hulk Hogan went toe-to-toe on March 29, 1987, and that was the day everyone watched
00:38with breathless anticipation.
00:40The idea was that Andre, all 500-plus pounds of him, was going to be body-slammed, and
00:45it almost didn't happen.
00:47At the time, Andre was already in extraordinary chronic pain that necessitated a back brace.
00:53Not only could he not help the Hulkster pick him up, but he needed carefully crafted breaks
00:57in between moves.
00:58One wrong move, fall or slam, could have had devastating consequences.
01:03The feud was legendary, sure, but outside of the ring, the two warmed up to each other.
01:08Hulk Hogan credited Andre with lending credibility to him in what he called such a beautiful
01:12storyline.
01:13In the same retrospective, Hulk Hogan reflected on the end of Andre's life.
01:17Tearing up and needing to pause before continuing, he shared,
01:21He just didn't know what to do with himself.
01:23He goes, I'm still living, but I don't feel like living anymore.
01:27He passed shortly after that.
01:29Feuding is the name of the game in wrestling, and it turns out that's pretty true for what
01:33goes on behind the scenes, too.
01:35Disagreements between Andre the Giant and Vince McMahon are well-publicized and the
01:39stuff of entertainment legend.
01:41At the time of Andre's death, they were still on the outs.
01:44As Bruce Prichard discussed on his podcast, Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard,
01:49McMahon and Andre had been incredibly good friends, but the better the friends, the worse
01:53the fallout.
01:54As he observed,
01:56I think there was a little bit of regret that hadn't been completely rectified, and he didn't
02:00have the opportunity to say goodbye to his friend.
02:03In Andre the Giant, A Legendary Life, Vince McMahon recalled seeing Andre toward the end
02:07of his life.
02:08In the later days, Andre drank even more and internalized even more.
02:12He wasn't on the road anymore, so he felt like he had no value.
02:16I think that really got to him.
02:18Andre had an ego, and a good one.
02:19When it looked like he no longer had any value, I think that weighed on him more than anything
02:24else.
02:25When interviewers for an HBO documentary asked McMahon about the last time he spoke with
02:29Andre, he admitted that he couldn't specifically remember.
02:33He did, however, say that he tended to deal with negative experiences by locking them
02:37away and compartmentalizing things.
02:39He teared up as he explained,
02:41If something hurts me, I get rid of it.
02:44He was special.
02:45Canadian wrestler and headliner Gene Obrido spent a lot of time with Andre the Giant,
02:50telling the Bleacher Report that he always had a bit of a fatalistic attitude.
02:54They were traveling across Quebec together when he asked if Andre really, truly felt
02:58the need to drink as much as he did.
03:00His response was heartbreaking.
03:02Who cares?
03:03In a few more years, I'll be gone anyway.
03:06Obrido recalled to the point when Andre showed a true interest in something else outside
03:10of wrestling, his North Carolina ranch.
03:12You want North Carolina?
03:13Uh huh.
03:14I got a house in North Carolina.
03:15Obrido described it as a place for a giant to live.
03:19He added that it was the sanctuary Andre retreated to and that he relished the chance to live
03:23a life out of the spotlight.
03:25Still, life there wasn't as comfortable as he might have wished.
03:29Obrido recalled seeing Andre during his final days and that each time he saw him, things
03:33were a little bit worse.
03:34He knew that eventually something would give out.
03:37His legs were swelling up like crazy.
03:39I don't know if he had gout or diabetes.
03:41His forehead was thickening.
03:43He was uncomfortable.
03:45He didn't like for anyone to see him with a cane, but just to walk to the ring was painful.
03:49In spite of the discomfort, Obrido said he refused to see a doctor.
03:54He said,
03:55I'll just keep going, then I'll drop dead.
03:58Referee Tim White was in the ring and in the middle of the action for many of wrestling's
04:02biggest matches.
04:03But before he was a referee, he was one of Andre the Giant's handlers.
04:07More than that, he was a friend and he participated in Michael Krugman's biography, Andre the
04:12Giant, A Legendary Life.
04:14It was heartbreaking stuff and he recalled the last time he saw Andre.
04:18He had been traveling for work and although Andre's North Carolina ranch wasn't really
04:22on the way, he stopped to see him.
04:25When I pulled away from the ranch, I was crying like a baby because he looked so bad.
04:29He could barely hide his pain.
04:31He of course didn't know it was the last time.
04:35He also recalled getting the phone call saying that Andre had already left for France and
04:38his father's funeral.
04:40I'm thinking how hard it was going to be for him to make the trip because of the way I
04:44saw him physically.
04:45Still, when he got the follow-up phone call that Andre too had passed away, it was a shock.
04:51I was devastated.
04:52I went numb.
04:54I went to my bar The Friendly Tap.
04:56The place was closed and had a few beers just staring into space.
05:01Andre the Giant was famously diagnosed with acromegaly, a condition in which the pituitary
05:06gland produces too much growth hormone.
05:08This results in parts of the body growing too big, too fast.
05:12It's incredibly rare and often treatable, and according to the National Institutes of
05:17Health, it results in a slew of complications.
05:19Even in a hotel, I can go through the door, I can go to the bathroom.
05:24While Andre's The Princess Bride co-star Cary Elwes hasn't discussed his final meeting with
05:28his friend, he has talked about the fact that while they were filming, Andre knew he was
05:33nearing the end of his life.
05:34He's also talked about the incredible attitude Andre carried with him, telling The Hollywood
05:39Reporter,
05:40He knew he was dying, and so because of that, he cherished every moment.
05:44And he helped teach me that, about being present and grateful.
05:47When he shared with me that he knew he was going to die, I just about fell apart.
05:52But he always had a smile on his face, and I think he knew the secret.
05:57In his book, As You Wish, Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, Elwes
06:02recalled overhearing Andre tell Billy Crystal,
06:05We don't get such a good break, the little guys and the big guys.
06:09We don't live so long.
06:10But he also shared conversations with Andre's friends and family, who said that even in
06:15the traveling he did in his final years, he would always sneak into any theater showing
06:19The Princess Bride and cherish the experience.
06:23Wrestling mainstay John Laurinaitis, better known by his stage name, Johnny Ace, recalled
06:28Andre the Giant's final wrestling matches in Japan.
06:31Up into the very final years of his life, he was still doing a series of appearances
06:36And they were really appearances, because by that time, he wasn't physically capable
06:40of doing much more than that.
06:42But it was awe-inspiring.
06:45As he recalled in Andre the Giant, A Legendary Life,
06:48People loved him like a god over in Japan.
06:51The fans had such an appreciation and respect for what they did in the business.
06:55It wasn't about what they actually could do in the ring today.
06:58Laurinaitis recounted stories of how he was paired with Giant Baba, and how the fans went
07:03wild when the two entered the ring.
07:05By the end of 1992, Andre was no longer able to participate.
07:10Fans of wrestling, and particularly of Andre the Giant, know the name Frenchie Bernard.
07:15After starting out as a wrestler in his own right, he gained more fame as a referee and
07:19later as Andre's handler.
07:21Bernard and his then-wife, Jackie McCauley, were some of the few people that Andre confided
07:26in when he was first diagnosed with acromegaly, including his reasons for refusing treatment.
07:32McCauley told CBS,
07:33He said,
07:41McCauley told Star News Online that just before Andre died, he was excited about a new movie
07:47role that had been offered to him.
07:49He was slated to star in a version of Jack and the Beanstalk.
07:53After returning to France for his father's funeral, Andre stayed for his mother's birthday,
07:57and then he passed away.
07:59McCauley recalled that they'd spent some time with him before he'd left, and she'd been
08:03admonishing him for putting on weight.
08:05When she later saw pictures of him that had been taken at his mother's birthday party,
08:09she said,
08:15McCauley flew to France to claim his body, and when she returned, she found he'd left
08:20a parting gift, a delivery of wine he'd ordered that his friends used to toast to his memory.
08:26At 2019 Steel CityCon, Wallace Shawn got candid about just how proud Andre had been
08:31of the Princess Bride in spite of his on-set struggles.
08:35Shawn explained,
08:51Mandy Patinkin, too, has said that he still carried some important lessons away from his
08:55friendship with Andre the Giant.
08:56He recalled via NPR his seemingly infinite kindness, which was made even more apparent
09:02as they wrapped shooting.
09:25of a lifetime for me.