Christopher Greener
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2020) |
Christopher Greener | |
|---|---|
| Died | 11 February 2015  |
Christopher Paul Greener (21 November 1943 – 11 February 2015)[1] was a British actor and basketball player who went on to represent Great Britain.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | The Canterbury Tales | Sir Elephant | Uncredited |
| 1975 | The Old Curiosity Shop | Giant | |
| 1980 | The Elephant Man | Giant | |
| 1986 | Sky Bandits | Strong man | |
| 1989 | Sedem jednou ranou - the valiant little tailor (Grimm brother's) | Giant | |
| 1990 | The Rainbow Thief | Caesar, the Healer | |
| 1993 | The Thief and the Cobbler | Mighty One-Eye | (1992 workprint), Voice |
References
- ^ "Mourners gather in Hayes for funeral of former UK's tallest man Christopher Greener". News Shopper. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
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