Maurice Tillet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Tillet

Maurice Tillet (October 23, 1903 – September 4, 1954) was a Russian-born French professional wrestler known as The French Angel. Tillet was a leading box office draw in the early 1940s and was twice recognized world heavyweight champion by the American Wrestling Association run by Paul Bowser in Boston.

Early life
Tillet was born in the Ural Mountains in Russia to French parents. His mother was a teacher
and his father was a railroad engineer. Tillet's father died when he was young.
As a child he had a completely normal appearance and Tillet was nicknamed "The Angel"
due to his angelic face. In 1917, Tillet and his mother left Russia due to the Revolution and moved to France, where they settled in Reims. When Tillet was 17, he noticed swelling in his feet, hands, and head, and after visiting a doctor was diagnosed with acromegaly - a condition usually caused by a benign tumor on the pituitary gland, resulting in bone overgrowth and thickening.

He had wanted to become a lawyer, but his acromegaly prevented him from doing so.
Tillet served in the French Navy for five years as an engineer.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akromegalie
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Maurice Tillet, The French Angel
http://www.interestingamerica.com/2012-03-31_USA-Weightlifting-Hall-of-Fame_by_Grigonis.html

A unique wrestler and strongman represented in the museum is Maurice Tillet, known as “The French Angel.”

On September 4, 1954, Tillet's life-long friend and manager Karl Pojello (Karolis Pozela) died at the age of 61 of lung cancer. The pair had shared adjoining rooms at 726 West Garfield Boulevard in Chicago. Tillet, ill from hypertensive heart disease (and having endured a bout with penumonia the previous August), suffered a heart attack when informed of the news, and was taken to County Hospital where he passed away 13 hours later, late Saturday night, September 4, 1954. Both Tilllet and Pojello were buried at the same time and next to each other, with a service at 1:30 p.m. on September 8, 1954, at the chapel at 3354 South Halsted Street, and were interred in the Lithuanian National Cemetery in Justice, Illinois.

Tillet’s appearance was so legendary that it is alleged his image (along with those of some other “Angels”) was used as the model for the animated character, Shrek.


http://quentin-lutte-olympique.wifeo.com/maurice-tillet.php

Another strange postscript to the life of Maurice Tillet: During his life, Tillet regularly travelled to Braintree, Massachusetts to visit the home of his close friend and fellow chess enthusiast, the entrepreneur Patrick Kelly. In 1980, 25 years after Tillet’s death, Patrick Kelly installed what was then a new-fangled microcomputer to run a chess program. Kelly placed Tillet’s mask next to the computer in memory of his long-gone chess buddy. Kelly allegedly found that the computer suddenly started playing him using well-known chess moves invented by an 18th century French grandmaster, which happened to be the favorite moves of this dear friend, Tillet. Moreover, after playing for three hours, the exhausted Kelly suddenly discovered that had forgotten to plug in the computer! He informed the computer's manufacturer about the incident. The company sent him a new computer and chess program. Kelly tried his hand at some original chess programming but the machine started to play back on its own. Kelly then attempted to turn off the computer, but it continued to display a particular move on the monitor even though Kelly had pulled all of the plugs.
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Dorian Leigh & Maurice Tillet, 1945
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/maurice-tillet?before=1341500021

Born in France, he could speak 14 languages and was also a poet and actor.
In his twenties, he developed acromegaly, a rare disease that causes bones to grow wildly and uncontrollably. Soon his whole body was disfigured as a result. Seeking a new identity to fit his disfigurement, Tillet moved to the United States where he made a living on his appearance by becoming a professional wrestler, and was dubbed as the “freak ogre of the ring”.