Wrestlers gather to remember the biggest of them all

On this day in 1993: Hulk Hogan and other professional wrestlers convene in Ellerbe to scatter the ashes of “Andre the Giant” Roussimoff, perhaps the best-known wrestler in the world, at Roussimoff’s 200-acre ranch.

Four weeks earlier Roussimoff, 46, died of a heart attack while in Paris for his father’s funeral. The French-born Roussimoff, who stood 6 feet 10 and weighed 550 pounds, suffered from acromegaly, a growth-hormone disorder marked by progressive enlargement of the head, hands, feet and chest. In addition to wrestling, Roussimoff played the gentle giant Fezzick in the critically praised 1989 movie “The Princess Bride.”

 

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