The Shocking Amount Of Beers André The Giant Could Drink
Many people like to boast of how many beers they can throw back during the course of an evening's drinking, but how many beers can one human actually consume? According to the National Library of Medicine, a blood alcohol concentration of .40 or above may prove fatal. A person weighing 180 pounds might get there after drinking 21 beers at the standard American alcohol content of 5% in a span of six hours. The larger the person, however, the more alcohol they can drink before reaching the danger zone. They don't come much bigger than the late André the Giant, who tipped the scales at 550 pounds and stood at 7 feet 4 inches tall in his size 26 wrestling boots.
Fans knew the Giant for his feats in the squared circle, as well as his star turn in "The Princess Bride." Those who knew him best — including fellow wrestlers Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan — remember him as one of the all-time legendary boozers. According to an interview he did with David Letterman, he once drank 117 beers in one night. Even at 550 pounds, though, this would equate to a BAC of around .83%, which would not only incapacitate but quite likely kill a mere mortal. So was the giant's larger-than-life drinking prowess merely kayfabe? Well, not according to some other accounts that seem to corroborate his phenomenal capacity.
The Giant had an outsized appetite for all kinds of booze
Drinking 117 beers in an evening is by no means the most unbelievable feat of boozing associated with the Eighth Wonder of the World. Hulk Hogan shared on "Toucher & Rich" that one time when the two were drinking in an airport lounge, his supersized companion knocked back 108 beers in 45 minutes (via CBS News). Mike Graham, who wrestled for WWE competitor WCW in the early 90s, spoke of seeing his big buddy pound 156 pints of beer (equivalent to 208 12-ounce cans).
Beer wasn't the Giant's only tipple, however. Ric Flair — himself quite the boozer, although these days he's promoting an energy drink called Wooooo! — reminisced on the "Dan Le Batard Show" about the two of them finishing all of the vodka on a Tokyo-to-Chicago flight. Bobby Heenan related how a hotel bartender once complained about his fellow wrestler ordering 40 vodka tonics. Cary Elwes, who played the romantic lead in "The Princess Bride," recalled that his gargantuan co-star favored a cocktail he called the American. It was a bunch of different types of booze poured into a 40-ounce pitcher (kind of a giant-sized version of a Long Island Iced Tea, minus the cola and sour mix). Elwes told Vanity Fair there was a sad reason behind all the boozing: Wrestling took a steep physical toll. "André didn't drink for the sake of drinking," Elwes told the magazine, explaining that his friend "was in a lot of pain, God bless him."