Matthew McGrory, 32; Actor Played Key Role in Movie ‘Big Fish’

Matthew McGrory, the deep-voiced, 7-foot-plus actor who moved from appearances on Howard Stern’s radio show to a high-profile role as a gentle giant in Tim Burton’s “Big Fish,” has died. He was 32.

McGrory died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles, said director Drew Sky, who was working with him on his current movie, a biopic of wrestler-turned-actor Andre the Giant. He appeared to have died of natural causes, police said.

McGrory appeared on Stern’s show in the 1990s and received other attention from the national media before becoming an actor. Before starting his career in Hollywood B movies, he appeared in music videos.

He played a human Sasquatch in 2001’s “Bubble Boy,” an alien in “Men In Black II” (2002) and Tiny in the Rob Zombie horror movies “House of 1000 Corpses” (2003) and its sequel released this year, “The Devil’s Rejects.”

His big break in Hollywood came in 2003 with “Big Fish,” in which Ewan McGregor’s character refuses to be intimidated by the size of McGrory’s Karl character.

Sky said he first met McGrory at a bar in 2000 and had been filming “Andre: Heart of the Giant” on and off for six months. He said McGrory felt a connection with the man he was portraying, wrestler and “The Princess Bride” actor Andre Rousimmoff, who died in 1993.

“He felt the same way, that he would do anything just to be a person of regular size one day a week, where people don’t have to stare at him, where he could go see a regular movie and walk down the street,” Sky said.

McGrory was born in West Chester, Pa., on May 17, 1973. He weighed 15 pounds and was 24 inches in length at birth. He quickly grew to tower over his mother, Maureen, who was 5 feet 6, and his late father, George, who stood 5 feet 11.

In 1998, he was judged to have the largest feet on a living person by the Guinness Book of World Records. One foot measured 17 inches long and the other 17 1/2 inches long. His shoe size was 29 1/2 .

McGrory attended law school but dropped out to pursue acting. Funeral services were pending.