1. At the age of 12, Andre was already well over six feet tall and 200 pounds.
2. As a kid, playwright Samuel Beckett gave him rides to school.
3. He supported himself through wrestling school by working for a moving company.
4. Andre was rejected from the French Army for being too big.
5. This is a picture of Andre holding a can of beer:
6. In a feat that would put any drinker to shame, Andre once had 156 beers in one sitting.
7. And according to Richard English, it took Andre almost two bottles of vodka in order to get a buzz.
8. Andre once drank 16 bottles of wine in four hours before wrestling three matches including a 20-man battle royal.
9. He could pick up Arnold Schwarzenegger like a feather.
10. He could easily walk into a restaurant and eat 12 steaks and 15 lobsters in one sitting.
Referee and friend Tim White told WWE, “He didn’t do that often, but if he felt like putting on a show and having some laughs, he’d go ahead and do that.”
11. A silver dollar could easily fit through one of Andre's custom-made rings.
12. He allegedly flipped a car over with four people inside.
13. The Washington Redskins offered Andre a tryout as a defensive linesman.
14. Andre went on a 15-year unbeaten streak starting in 1972.
Hulk Hogan would break Andre's undefeated run after body-slamming him at WrestleMania 3 in front of over 93,000 people.
15. This is Andre posing with a five-year-old Dwayne Johnson AKA "The Rock."
At 5, I never knew why people got so excited to see him.. to me he was just "Uncle Andre";) #MissU #TBT
16. William Goldman, writer of The Princess Bride, wrote the part of Fezzik specifically for Andre.
17. According to Cary Elwes, Andre originally thought he only had one scene in the entire film.
18. Andre was heard saying that his favorite part of being on set was that "nobody stared at me."
19. Shepard Fairey's OBEY campaign began as a "happy accident."
While searching for an image that would make a great stencil, Fairely was flipping through a newspaper and found the now famous "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" ad. The rest is history.
20. Andre was the inspiration for Hugo Andore from Street Fighter.
21. After his death, Andre was the first wrestler to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1993.
22. Hulk Hogan recently announced that the first ever "Andre the Giant Memorial" Battle Royal will take place at Wrestlemania 30.
Andre: truly a giant among men.
