Christopher Greener

Christopher Paul Greener (21 November 1943 – 11 February 2015)[1] was a British actor and basketball player who went on to represent Great Britain.

Christopher Greener
Died11 February 2015 

Greener was born in New Brighton, Wallasey, Cheshire. He was at one point the tallest man in the United Kingdom and at the time of his death was the 4th tallest British-born man (after Giant Bradley, Neil Fingleton and Paul Sturgess) at 7 ft 6 1⁄4 in (229 cm) in height. His weight ranged from 20-30 stone (127-190 kg) during his adulthood. Greener, from a very young age, had a tumour at the base of his pituitary gland, which controls the release of human growth hormone. The tumour caused Greener's pituitary to grow to several times the size of that of an average person, and he would not have stopped growing had the tumour not been surgically removed when he was in his late 20s. Amazingly, his condition, pituitary gigantism, was not diagnosed until 1970, when Greener was 27 years old, already at his maximum height and the record-holder as the tallest man in Britain. He held the record for 40 years.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Greener was an international basketball player for the Great Britain team, and was often at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

Greener worked as an actor, often serving in various comedy roles focused on his great height. He played the circus giant in David Lynch's The Elephant Man. He appeared in several documentaries chronicling the lives of the very tall, including the World's Tallest People television special on The Learning Channel in the United States and Superhuman: Giants on the UK's ITV.

On 14 February 2011 he appeared on an episode of The Gadget Show on Five in the UK to test out phones by dropping them. He died, aged 71, in Hayes, Bromley.

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1972The Canterbury TalesSir ElephantUncredited
1975The Old Curiosity ShopGiant
1980The Elephant ManGiant
1986Sky BanditsStrong man
1989Sedem jednou ranou - the valiant little tailor (Grimm brother's)Giant
1990The Rainbow ThiefCaesar, the Healer
1993The Thief and the CobblerMighty One-Eye(1992 workprint), Voice

References
  1. "Mourners gather in Hayes for funeral of former UK's tallest man Christopher Greener". News Shopper. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.