Man Mountain Dean Man Mountain Dean ( June 30 , 1891 – May 29 , 1953 ) , born Frank Simmons Leavitt , was a professional wrestler of the early 1900s . He was born in New York City , the son of John McKenney and Henrietta N . ( Decker ) Leavitt . From childhood , Frank Leavitt was remarkably large in stature . This trait led to a lifelong interest in competitive sport , and also made it easy for him to lie about his age in order to join the Army at the age of fourteen . While enlisted he saw duty on the Mexican - U . S . border with John J . Pershing , and was later sent to France where he participated in combat during World War I . Also during this period ( 1914 ) he began his wrestling career using the ring name of " Soldier Leavitt " . After the war , Leavitt embarked on a career in athletics . Although signed for a brief time ( 1919 – 20 ) with the New York Brickley Giants of the National Football League , he concentrated most of his efforts toward the less lucrative field of professional wrestling . He competed in the ring for a time under the name " Hell ' s Kitchen Bill - Bill " ( a " hillbilly " reference which was suggested to him by the writer Damon Runyon ) but eventually settled on the moniker of " Stone Mountain " . Leavitt wrestled with limited success at first , and after an injury took a job as a police officer in Miami , Florida . It was here he met his wife , Doris Dean , who also became his manager . After her idea , he adopted the nickname " Man Mountain " and substituted the more Anglo - Saxon - sounding last name of Dean . At well over six feet in height and weighing in excess of 300 pounds , Dean was an imposing figure . To this he added a long , full beard as part of his ring persona . Dean was one of the first professional wrestlers to emphasize showmanship in the sport , and it worked to his advantage . After a highly successful wrestling tour of Germany which had been booked by his wife , he was invited to take a job in the UK as stunt - double for Charles Laughton in the movie " The Private Life of Henry VIII . " This would be the beginning of a subsidiary movie career for Dean , who would appear in various roles in twelve other movies , playing himself in five of them . One of the movies in which he portrayed himself was the Joe E . Brown comedy " The Gladiator " , a 1938 adaptation of Philip Gordon Wylie ' s 1930 novel " Gladiator " . Meanwhile he continued a fairly successful wrestling career , participating altogether in 6 , 783 professional bouts and commanding fees upwards of $ 1 , 500 for each match . In 1937 he retired from the ring to a farm outside of Norcross , Georgia . Dean ran for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives in 1938 but withdrew his candidacy , citing discomfort with the political process . During World War II he again joined the Army despite his age , and finally left with the rank of master sergeant . In the 1940s he was the First Sergeant of the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie , Md . Afterward he studied at the University of Georgia ' s school of journalism . He appeared as a guest on the December 29 , 1944 episode of the radio program " It Pays to be Ignorant " . During the program , broadcast from New York City , Dean gave his weight as 280 pounds ( 127 kg ) . He died of a heart attack in his home in Norcross , Georgia , at the age of 63 in 1953 , and is buried in Marietta National Cemetery under a military marker bearing his birth name and an erroneous year of birth ( 1889 ) .