A contender who never quite caught on is Nathan Jones, who was basically “the big guy” in both a Jackie Chan movie and a Jet Li movie.
And Gheorghe Mureșan might well have become the next Big Guy if his film career had lasted past My Giant.
Trump is ‘uge. Not his hands.
The Rock. Momoa. World’s Strongest Men?
George Miller seems quite fond of the “huge guy” in his Mad Max films. I was surprised to learn that the actor playing Lord Humungous in Road Warrior is only 6’3”, but then Blaster from ThunderDome is 6’9” and Rictus from Fury Road is a proper 6’11”. Helps that all three are muscled up body-builder types, and imposing helmets give the illusion of greater size.
Andre didn’t need a helmet - his head alone was about three times bigger in volume than Arnold’s.
I was. I’d tune in to check that out. He’s a surprisingly clever, funny fellow, and the fact that it’s surprising is my shortcoming, not his.
I can’t find it online, but there’s a promo USA network did 10 or so years ago that had “Big Show” Paul Wight and Matt Bomer drinking high-end scotch and being snobby until Wight leans over too much and almost crushes the table.
Just wanted to add that Paul Wight went by The Giant for several years, including at the peak of the “Monday Night Wars/Attitude Era” when WCW was very popular. Since I was mostly an '80s fan and barely paid attention past the '90s I pretty much missed his “Big Show” run in the “WWE.” IIRC storyline was that he was “Andre’s son.”
Yeah, that was Hulk Hogan’s idea. He wanted to relive the glory days of his feud with Andre. They let the angle quietly die.
I’ve posted this before, but Wight played basketball for a season (or two) at Wichita State. I attended a couple of games in which he played. He was a decent player, and the crowd absolutely loved him.
Andre was a legitimate 6’11’. However, in his heyday in the 1970s, his afro and wrestling boots possibly got him closer to the claimed 7’4".
But as to the OP, the closest I can come up with is Shaq, so far as best known ‘giant.’ I think every other commercial has Shaq pitching something.
Agreed. It’s not just a matter of size, name and face recognition are make the difference. The Rock is a big guy, maybe 6’4", and built like a masonry lavatory. As an former football player, professional wrestler, and action star he is an actual big man, unlike many smaller men whose size is only movie magic. But Shaq is actually over 7 feet tall, over 300 lbs. and an athlete, extremely well known and recognizable. He has the voice and mien of a giant.
Nice guy, too.
A lot of these guys had pituitary issues or genetic disorders. Shaq is just big. But he’s not gangly or awkward. In fact, he’s incredibly nimble for his size.
He was an absolute terror in Orlando during his younger years. He could run the floor like no other center.
Shaq makes big guys like Dwayne Johnson look little. Dunno if you can have a better description for “huge guy” than that.
Shaq’s freakish ability was being big enough to bang bodies with the other centers in the league, strong enough to just run them over anyway, and so damn light on his feet, especially when he was younger. He was getting to the basket, it was just a matter of going around you or going through you - and he preferred to go through you.
But that’s part of the problem. He’s big, yes, but generally he’s also in proportion to himself, if that makes sense. Looking at him in isolation, he’s doesn’t give off the “Man, he’s HUGE!” vibe. It’s only when you see him next to other people that you start to get how big he is.
With Andre the Giant, you knew he was huge, even just seeing him standing in an open field all alone, because his proportions were just all so completely different from regular everyday guys.
The square-cube law just decided to skip Shaq.
No rules or laws apply to Shaq. As a basketball player, he exists outside the bounds of physics. Hell, if there was a video posted of him dunking from half-court a la Space Jam Michael Jordan, I don’t know that I’d think it might be faked.
His strength is pretty legendary, especially since he hated to work out.
