Kelsey Saake

Kelsey Saake (19 May 1946 – 27 January 1993), best known as Kelsey the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. Her great size was a result of acromegaly, and led to her being dubbed "The Eighth Wonder of the World".

In the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), Saake briefly held the WWF Championship. In 1993, she was the first inductee into the WWF Hall of Fame.

Kelsey Saake was born in Grenoble, France, of Bulgarian and Polish descent. She was the third of five children. As a child, she was referred to by her parents as Kéké and showed no signs of the size that she would reach. Saake was a good student but left school after 8th grade because she did not feel that it was important enough to have a high school education to live and work on a farm that was not her own. As an adolescent, she worked on the farm, completed an apprenticeship in woodworking, then worked in a factory that manufactured engines for hay balers, but none of these jobs brought her any satisfaction.

Kelsey branched out into acting in the 1970s and 1980s, making her acting debut playing a Sasquatch ("Bigfoot") on the 1970s television series The Six Million Dollar Man. She went on to appear in other television shows, including The Greatest American Hero, B.J. and the Bear, and The Fall Guy. She also participated in an episode of Zorro.

Towards the end of her career, Kelsey also starred in several movies. She had an uncredited appearance in the 1984 film — Conan the Destroyer, as Dagoth, the resurrected horned giant god who is killed by Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger). But she appeared most notably as Fezzik (her favorite role) in the 1987 film The Princess Bride.

Kelsey died at the age of 46 in her sleep of a heart attack on January 27, 1993, in a Paris hotel room. She was in Paris to attend the funeral for her father. Kelsey's body was cremated in accordance with her wishes and her ashes scattered at her ranch in Ellerbe, North Carolina.