Tiny town in North Carolina honors towering Andre The Giant with roadside marker

ELLERBE, N.C.. (AP) — Andre The Giant, a towering menace in the wrestling ring but a gentle giant on the movie screen, is being honored with a roadside marker in his beloved adopted small town in North Carolina.

Officials unveiled the marker Thursday in Ellerbe, North Carolina, a community of about 1,000 people where the wrestler born Andre Rene Roussimoff lived on a ranch just outside town.

Roussimoff was billed at 7-foot-4 (2.24 meters) and 520 pounds (236 kilograms) during his time wrestling for the WWE in the 1970s and 1980s.

A larger than life villain, Roussimoff was touted as unbeatable until he faced Hulk Hogan in a match in 1987 at WrestleMania III that launched the once regional wrestling company into a nationwide entertainment force.

Later that year, Roussimoff appeared on film as the giant Fezzik in “The Princess Bride.” Fezzik was the gentle-hearted muscle for the antagonist and needed rhymes to remember his instructions.

Roussimoff was born in France. But as he wrestled around the U.S. South he fell in love with the region, buying his North Carolina ranch and raising cattle on his land about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Charlotte.

He became a critical part of the Ellerbe community. In 1990, he taped TV and radio spots against a possible low-level radioactive landfill nearby. A pair of his size-26 cowboy boots are kept at a museum.

Roussimoff died in 1993 at age 46 in France where he was visiting for his father’s funeral. They had a service for him there, but his body was cremated and his ashes spread at his beloved ranch.

Wrestler Vladimir Koloff, who befriended Roussimoff as he helped him get into the business, said his friend deserved the marker because he turned wrestling from a regional pastime into a huge international business.

“The world of professional wrestling has given us a larger than life icon,” Koloff said just before helping take the cover off the marker.

The Richmond County marker at NC Highway 73 and Old NC Highway 220 simply says “Andre The Giant. 1946-1993. Actor and professional wrestler. Was born Andre Roussimoff. Known for role in The Princess Bride in 1987. Lived nearby.”