Maurice Tillet was a Russian-born French professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, The French Angel.
Background
Tillet was born in 1903 in the Ural Mountains in Russia to French parents. His mother was a teacher and his father was a railroad engineer In 1917, Tillet and his mother left Russia due to the Revolution and moved to France, where they settled in Reims.
Career
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. When Tillet was 20, 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 southern
Tillet served in the French Navy for five years as an engineer In February 1937, Tillet met Karl Pojello (lithuanian Karolis Požėla) in Singapore.
Pojello was a professional wrestler, and convinced Tillet to enter the business. Tillet and Pojello moved to Paris for training, and Tillet wrestled for two years in France and England until World World War II forced them to leave for the United States in 1939.
In Boston, Massachusetts, in 1940, promoter Paul Bowser pushed Tillet, who was wrestling as The French Angel, as a main eventer, and he became a large draw in the area.
As a result of his popularity, Tillet was booked as unstoppable, going undefeated for a span of 19 consecutive months. In early 1942, he also held the Montreal-based world heavyweight championship. He regained the Boston-based title for a short time in 1944.
As a result of his success, several Angel imitators emerged, including Paul Olaffsen (Swedish Angel) who also had acromegaly, Tony Angelo (Russian Angel), Tor Johnson (Super Swedish Angel), Jack Rush (Canadian Angel), Wladislaw Tulin (Polish Angel), Stan Pinto (Czechoslovakian Angel), Clive Welsh (Irish Angel), Jack Falk (Golden Angel), Gil Guerrero (Black Angel), and Jean Noble (Lady Angel).
Tillet competed against Tor Johnson, who was billed as The Swedish Angel on those occasions. By 1945, Tillet"s health began to fail and he was no longer booked as unstoppable.
In his final wrestling match, in Singapore on February 14, 1953, he lost to Bert Assirati. In 1950, Chicago sculptor Louis Linck befriended Tillet and made a series of plaster busts commemorating him for his wrestling career.
One of the busts is in Chicago’s International Museum of Surgical Science.
Tillet died on September 4, 1954, in France, from heart disease. Tillet is buried at Lithuanian National Cemetery in Justice, Illinois in Cook County, Illinois, 20 miles (32 km) from Chicago. Finishing moves
Palm Strike
Signature moves
Bear hug
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2012
There have been rumours that the ogre from the Shrek film series was modeled after Tillet.
However, creators DreamWorks Animation have never openly commented on this.