HylianKWG
08-12-2005, 05:16 AM
This is very sad, I know he will be missed. :(
Matthew McGrory, the seven-foot-plus actor who portrayed Karl the Giant in 2003's Big Fish, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 32.
McGrory's death was confirmed by director Drew Sky, who had been working on a biopic of wrestler turned movie star André the Giant with the actor.
According to a statement by police, paramedics initially determined that the actor died of apparent natural causes.
However, authorities found the initial autopsy results to be inconclusive and further tests will need to be conducted to determine the official cause of McGrory's death.
For years, McGrory, who wore a size 29 1/2 shoe, held the world record for largest feet not caused by elephantiasis.
Thanks to the prestige afforded by the title, he was a frequent guest on Howard Stern's radio show in the 1990s under the name "Big Foot."
He later went on to hold the record for World's Tallest Actor, with a recorded height of six-feet-seven. At the time of his birth in 1973, he weighed 15 pounds and was already two feet tall.
Before becoming an actor, McGrory appeared in music videos and attended law school.
Though it was his role as a misunderstood giant in Tim Burton's fanciful Big Fish that catapulted McGrory to stardom, he appeared in numerous other films over the years.
The West Chester, Pennsylvania native played the Human Sasquatch in 2001's Bubble Boy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and an alien in 2002's Men in Black II, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.
McGrory also starred as Tiny Firefly in Rob Zombie's 2003 horror flick House of 1000 Corpses and its gory sequel, The Devil's Rejects, released last month.
Sky, who said he met McGrory in a bar in 2000, said that the actor felt a kinship with André Rousimmoff, who starred in The Princess Bride and died in 1993.
"He was sick of playing a carnival act and we came up with the idea for the André movie together," Sky told MTV.com. "I wrote the script, and he read it and said, 'Oh my God, this is me.'
"Like André, sometimes he just wanted to be able to walk around and be a regular guy and not have people ask him how tall he is or how much he weighs," Sky said. "He wanted to ride in a sports car, and he loved making movies, but it made him sad that he couldn't even go to theaters to watch them because he was too big for the seats."
Sky said he was unsure if he would be able to complete the project without McGrory.
The actor's family and girlfriend had yet to speak publicly about his death as of Thursday.
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,17132,00.html?fdnews
Matthew McGrory, the seven-foot-plus actor who portrayed Karl the Giant in 2003's Big Fish, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 32.
McGrory's death was confirmed by director Drew Sky, who had been working on a biopic of wrestler turned movie star André the Giant with the actor.
According to a statement by police, paramedics initially determined that the actor died of apparent natural causes.
However, authorities found the initial autopsy results to be inconclusive and further tests will need to be conducted to determine the official cause of McGrory's death.
For years, McGrory, who wore a size 29 1/2 shoe, held the world record for largest feet not caused by elephantiasis.
Thanks to the prestige afforded by the title, he was a frequent guest on Howard Stern's radio show in the 1990s under the name "Big Foot."
He later went on to hold the record for World's Tallest Actor, with a recorded height of six-feet-seven. At the time of his birth in 1973, he weighed 15 pounds and was already two feet tall.
Before becoming an actor, McGrory appeared in music videos and attended law school.
Though it was his role as a misunderstood giant in Tim Burton's fanciful Big Fish that catapulted McGrory to stardom, he appeared in numerous other films over the years.
The West Chester, Pennsylvania native played the Human Sasquatch in 2001's Bubble Boy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and an alien in 2002's Men in Black II, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.
McGrory also starred as Tiny Firefly in Rob Zombie's 2003 horror flick House of 1000 Corpses and its gory sequel, The Devil's Rejects, released last month.
Sky, who said he met McGrory in a bar in 2000, said that the actor felt a kinship with André Rousimmoff, who starred in The Princess Bride and died in 1993.
"He was sick of playing a carnival act and we came up with the idea for the André movie together," Sky told MTV.com. "I wrote the script, and he read it and said, 'Oh my God, this is me.'
"Like André, sometimes he just wanted to be able to walk around and be a regular guy and not have people ask him how tall he is or how much he weighs," Sky said. "He wanted to ride in a sports car, and he loved making movies, but it made him sad that he couldn't even go to theaters to watch them because he was too big for the seats."
Sky said he was unsure if he would be able to complete the project without McGrory.
The actor's family and girlfriend had yet to speak publicly about his death as of Thursday.
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,17132,00.html?fdnews