Väinö Myllyrinne (27 February 1909 – 13 April 1963) was a Finnish acromegalic

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''wiktionary:gigas, gigas'', cognate wiktionary:giga-, giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''gia ...

who was at one time (1940–1963) the world's tallest living person, and may have become the tallest after the death of

Robert Wadlow Robert Pershing Wadlow (February 22, 1918 July 15, 1940), also known as the Alton Giant and the Giant of Illinois, was an American man. He is the list of tallest people, tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. ...

. He stood and weighed at the age of 21, but experienced a second phase of growth in his late thirties, attaining a height of . Myllyrinne was born in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

, and is considered the tallest soldier ever, having served in the

Finnish Defence Forces The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) (; ) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy, and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime, the Finnish Border Guard becomes part of the Finnish Defence For ...

. He underwent his conscript training in 1929 in the Viipuri Heavy Artillery Regiment, and was tall and very strong. In the 1930s he travelled around Europe as a

professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

and circus performer. He returned to Finland in 1939 to serve in the

Finnish Army The Finnish Army ( , ) is the army, land forces branch of the Finnish Defence Forces. The Finnish Army is divided into six branches: infantry (which includes armoured units), field artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, Combat engineering, engineer ...

during the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

. In 1946, he moved to

Järvenpää Järvenpää (; , ; ) is a town in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Järvenpää is situated in the centre of the Uusimaa region in the immediate vicinity of Lake Tuusula. The population of Järvenpää is approximately ...

and ran a chicken farm. He died in Helsinki in 1963 and is buried at Järvenpää. In 1962, just a year before his death, he was measured by doctors at . A newspaper report from 1947 stated that his height was .

References

External links

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Väinö Myllyrinne homepage

Findagrave record
1909 births 1963 deaths Finnish expatriates in the United States Finnish male professional wrestlers People from Helsinki Wrestlers with acromegaly People with gigantism 20th-century Finnish sportsmen {{Finland-bio-stub