Meet Maurice Tillet, the real world Shrek!
admin February 26th, 2008
(+9 rating, 11 votes)
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This may come to you as a surprise or a silly joke, but it’s actually the truth. The popular CGI cartoon Shrek actually existed! Rather, his ogre-ific head was modeled after a real person; he was called Maurice Tillet, and he was actually a very intelligent person, a poet and writer who could speak 14 languages, and sure enough use plenty colorful idioms (;)).
Tillet was born in 1903, and as a teenager he manifested a rare disease called acromegaly, which causes bones to grow uncontrollably. As result his body was disfigured, and he turned into what people back then referred to as “freak show”; do you think that put him down? Think again! He actually went to the United States in order to take advantage of his new condition, by turning into a pro wrestler called the “freak ogre of the ring”.
Tillet fought till the end – which arrived in 1954 when he was 51 years old – and he died with a heart attack. Not long before he died, a friend of his asked him to get a lifecast, and Tillet agreed. There were actually three casts, one of which ended up in Iowa (International Wrestling Museum); the second mask went to his friend, and the third one was sent to the York Barbell Museum, where it would allegedly be used as a model to design the popular cartoon character.
Doubtlessly, Maurice Tillet was a very brave person who refused to be put down by his physical deformity; in a sense, I think he would have liked to know Shrek was modeled after him… after all there’s a positive message to this cartoon, which closely resonates Tillet’s own legacy of positive self-esteem and upbeat personality. He was the kind of person who learned to make lemonade, rather than complaining for getting only lemons out of life; his example should be inspirational for us all.
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- Comments(21)
the shrek woman…
http://a369.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/15/l_0451f5baf98bc4040693c291fb5a2230.jpg
http://a468.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/16/l_eb734d802ed9b59ac5fad9bd74faf873.jpg
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=100082781
OMG BAMBOON TAMPOON for sure.
That’s so cool!
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
wow now i’ve seen it all
He looks good for 105 years old.
Anyone who’d like to see Tillet on film, rent the original “Mighty Joe Young.”
Tillet makes a cameo in it, as one of the “strongmen” that the big gorilla plays tug-of-war with in a cabaret show. Tillet’s “ring name” was The Swedish Angel. He was sometimes confused with Tor Johnson, who sometimes went by the ring name of “Super Swedish Angel.”
Check out the story about Maurice Tillet’s chess-loving ’spirit’
http://e-sanclub.net/board/archiver/?tid-798.html
@Bobbar: that’s an awesome little bit of information! If someone can get me a youtube link with that clip, I’d love to add it to the post! Anyone up to the challenge?
Photoshopped.
OMG I still call Bamboon Tampoon.
Def. photoshopped. Nice try.
re: kangarootitson
i honestly cannot believe there are people as thick as you out there. god help the human race. and the quicker we get selective genetics up and running, the better. what a nobhead!
That isn’t Photoshopped, he is on the top of a building…which makes stuff down on the ground look small.
y’all are trippin.
not photoshopped at all!!!
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Shrek was a -book- written by William Stieg in the late 80s-early 90s…I love how -that- seems to have been ignored in the article. I don’t doubt that there is a possibility that he was an influence on the image of the character, but the book is what brought Shrek to the silver screen.
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Great blog
Actually he was known in the ring as “The French Angel”. Very brave man that had to put up with so much ridicule.