Andre Roussimoff was born in Moliens, the son of Boris and Mariann Roussimoff. His parents were of Bulgarian and Polish descent. His nickname growing up was "Dede". As a child, he displayed symptoms of his gigantism very early, reaching a height of 191 cm (6 ft 3 in) and a weight of 94 kg (208 lb) by the age of 12.

Andre returned in the winter of 1990, but it was not to the World Wrestling Federation. Instead, Andre made an interview appearance for Herb Abrams' fledgling Universal Wrestling Federation on October 11th in Reseda, California. (the segment aired in 1991). He appeared in an interview segment with Captain Lou Albano and put over the UWF. The following month, on November 30th at a house show in Miami, Florida the World Wrestling Federation announced Andre's return as a participant in the 1991 Royal Rumble (to be held in Miami, FL two months later). Andre was also mentioned as a participant on television but would ultimately back out due to a leg injury.  His on-air return finally came at WrestleMania VII, when he came to the aid of The Big Boss Man in his match against Mr. Perfect. Andre finally returned to action on April 26, 1991, in a six-man tag-team matchup when he teamed with the Rockers in a winning effort against Mr. Fuji and the Orient Express at a house show in Belfast, Northern Ireland. On May 10th he participated in a 17-man battle-royal at a house show in Detroit. (won by Kerry Von Erich). His last major WWF storyline following WrestleMania VII had the major heel managers (Bobby Heenan, Sensational Sherri, Slick, and Mr. Fuji) trying to recruit Andre one-by-one, only to be turned down in various humiliating ways (e.g. Heenan had his hand crushed, Sherri received a spanking, Slick got locked in the trunk of the car he was offering to Andre and Mr. Fuji got a pie in his face). Finally, Jimmy Hart appeared live on WWF Superstars to announce that he had successfully signed Andre to tag-team with Earthquake. However, when asked to confirm this by Gene Okerlund, Andre denied the claims. This led to Earthquake's attacking Andre from behind (injuring his knee). Jimmy Hart would later get revenge for the humiliation by secretly signing Tugboat and forming the Natural Disasters. This led to Andre's final major WWF appearance at SummerSlam '91, where he seconded the Bushwhackers in their match against the Disasters. Andre was on crutches at ringside, and after the Disasters won the match, they set out to attack Andre, but the Legion of Doom made their way to ringside and got in between them and the Giant, who was preparing to defend himself with one of his crutches. The Disasters left the ringside area as they were outnumbered by the Legion of Doom, the Bushwhackers and Andre, who struck both Earthquake and Typhoon (the former Tugboat) with the crutch as they left. His final WWF appearance came at a house show in Paris, France, on October 9. He was in Davey Boy Smith's corner as the Bulldog faced Earthquake. Davey Boy hit Earthquake with Andre's crutch, allowing Smith to win.  His last U.S. television appearance was in a brief interview on World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) Clash of the Champions XX special that aired on TBS on 2 September 1992.

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