Query: Joseph Merrick was a severely deformed man in the 19th century.

Relevant passages:
Joseph Merrick <=SEP=> Joseph Carey Merrick ( 5 August 1862 -- 11 April 1890 ; often incorrectly called John Merrick ) was an English man with very severe deformities who was first exhibited at a freak show as the `` Elephant Man '' , and then went to live at the London Hospital after he met Frederick Treves , so becoming well known in London society . Merrick was born in Leicester , and began to develop abnormally during the first few years of his life : his skin appeared thick and lumpy , he developed enlarged lips , and a bony lump grew on his forehead , one of his arms and both of his feet became enlarged and at some point during his childhood he fell and damaged his hip , resulting in permanent lameness . When he was 9 , his mother died from bronchopneumonia , and his father soon remarried . Merrick left school at the age of 13 and had difficulty finding employment . Rejected by his father and stepmother , he left home . In late 1879 , Merrick , aged 17 , entered the Leicester Union Workhouse .   In 1884 , after four years in the workhouse , Merrick contacted a showman named Sam Torr and proposed that Torr should exhibit him . Torr agreed and arranged for a group of men to manage Merrick , whom they named the Elephant Man . After touring the East Midlands , Merrick travelled to London to be exhibited in a penny gaff shop on Whitechapel Road which was rented by showman Tom Norman . Norman 's shop , directly across the street from the London Hospital , was visited by a surgeon named Frederick Treves , who invited Merrick to be examined and photographed . Soon after Merrick 's visits to the hospital , Tom Norman 's shop was closed by the police , and Merrick 's managers sent him to tour in Europe .   In Belgium , Merrick was robbed by his road manager and abandoned in Brussels . He eventually made his way back to London ; unable to communicate , he was found by the police to have Dr. Treves 's card on him . Treves came and took Merrick back to the London Hospital . Although his condition was incurable , Merrick was allowed to stay at the hospital for the remainder of his life . Treves visited him daily , and the pair developed quite a close friendship . Merrick also got visits from the wealthy ladies and gentlemen of London society , including Alexandra , Princess of Wales .   Merrick died on 11 April 1890 , aged 27 . Although the official cause of his death was asphyxia , Treves , who performed the autopsy on the body , said that Merrick had died of a dislocated neck . He believed that Merrick , who had to sleep sitting up because of the weight of his head , had been attempting to sleep lying down to `` be like other people '' . In absence of the possibility of genetic tests , the exact cause of Merrick 's deformities has long been unclear , so that throughout much of the 20th century it was speculated that Merrick was affected by other neurological syndromes . Only in 1986 was it conjectured that he had Proteus syndrome , a very rare congenital disorder also known as Wiedemann syndrome ( named after the German pediatrician Hans-Rudolf Wiedemann ) . DNA tests on his hair and bones in 2003 in a study by Charis Eng were inconclusive . Meanwhile , in 1979 , Bernard Pomerance 's play about Merrick called The Elephant Man debuted , and David Lynch 's film , also called The Elephant Man , was released in 1980 . In late 2014 and early 2015 , Bradley Cooper starred in a Broadway revival of The Elephant Man , directed by Scott Ellis .