You can find publications on the Internet that the creator of the cartoon “Shrek” based his character on a Russian-born professional wrestler. Often such publications include a photo of them together. We have verified the accuracy of this story.
For example, in January 2024, with the note “a short excursion into history,” a blogger wrote about this in his Telegram channel Dmitry Vasilets (237,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). The publication also included a photo of two men shaking hands. In some posts separately notedthat this photo shows wrestler Maurice Tillet, nicknamed the French Angel, and "Creator of the cartoon "Shrek" William Steig. Similar posts have appeared in other Telegram channels in recent years, including “Camera"(223,000 views), "Youth" (128,000), "Film" (64,000) and "Human history"(32,000). The story that Tillet served as the prototype for Shrek is also popular on VKontakte. For example, in the “5 Interesting Facts” public page, this story with a viral photo has been posted at least nine times since 2019 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) - in total, these posts received 2.3 million views. There are similar publications, for example, in communities World of History (176,000 views) and Trash (130,000).
Claims that Tiye was the prototype of the green giant can also be found outside of social networks. For example, websites wrote about this Sport24 And "Championship", and also filmed videos on YouTube channels "Acute angle" (960,000 views) and "Open world"(14,000). The same photo with similar captions was distributed by foreign language users of social networks (Instagram*, Facebook*, X).
Who is Tiye?
Maurice Tillet was born in 1903 in a French family living in the Russian Empire. Many sources say that his place of birth is the Urals, but the author of a thematic site dedicated to Tiya, asserts, that St. Petersburg was indicated in official documents. Maurice's father died when he was still small, and with the outbreak of the 1917 revolution, mother and son moved to France. Probably thanks to the influence of his mother, who taught languages, Tiye became a polyglot. Although many of the posts mentioned above say that he knew 14 languages, the author of the topic site leads more modest data: “By mid-1942, Maurice spoke at least five languages: French, Russian, Lithuanian, Bulgarian and English.” According to some data, he was also familiar with Italian and Spanish.
Reportedthat at the age of 17, Tiye's head, chest, arms and legs began to enlarge, and at the age of 19 he was diagnosed acromegaly is a disease associated with dysfunction of the anterior pituitary gland, resulting in the production of excess growth hormone. Subsequently, the young man played rugby for some time (after one match he even allegedly met with King George V of Great Britain) and studied law at the University of Toulouse, but left the Faculty of Law and entered the service as an engineer in the French Navy, where he also practiced wrestling. At the end of his service he starred in several films.
According to the most common versions his biography, when Tillet was working at a film studio in the late 1930s, he was noticed Carl Pogello - Lithuanian and then American wrestler and promoter. He convinced Maurice to take up wrestling professionally, and subsequently became his coach, manager and close friend. Over the course of several years, Tiye became a very popular wrestler, and after the outbreak of World War II, he emigrated to the United States, where, due to his unusual appearance and remarkable strength, he gained great popularity and won a number of titles. Note that at the beginning of his career the athlete performed under the nickname Angel, and the word “French” was added later when promoter Jack Pfeffer became promote numerous wrestlers from other countries under similar pseudonyms.
On September 4, 1954, Pogello died of lung cancer, and in the evening of the same day, Tillet died of a heart attack. Their buried at Lithuanian National Cemetery in Justice, Illinois, and the joint headstone reads, “Friends that not even death could separate.”
Is it true that the viral photo of Tiye shows Shrek's creator?
Most of the posts cited at the beginning of this analysis claim that the viral photo shows Tiye and William Steig shaking hands with each other. Using a reverse image search, Verified determined that the original photo published on a website dedicated to the life of a wrestler. According to signatures, the photo shows the French Angel himself (right) and Wild Bill Zim (left). Zim was also a popular American wrestler, which spoke in the ring in the 1930s–1950s.
The article says that this photo was sent to the site’s author by Wild Bill’s son Zim Mike Zim, having found it in his father's collection. The photograph was cited as an illustration of how Tillet differed from men of the same height. “Mike noted that, according to his father, Maurice was a very kind and decent man who gave much of his money to children in need,” reported in the same material.
Thus, the viral photo next to Tillet shows not the creator of Shrek, but another wrestler.
Is it true that Steig is the author of the cartoon "Shrek"?
Also, a significant part of the publications claim that Steig was allegedly the author cartoon, released in 2001 by DreamWorks. In fact, he was an artist and author of children's books, but did not take direct part in the creation of the animated film. In 1990, the writer released the story “Shrek!”, which he himself illustrated. The plot and details of the original text differed from the film adaptation: for example, in the original source, the green monster could breathe fire and had heat vision, he was driven out of the swamp by his own parents, and the princess was “ugly” on her own, and not because of the curse placed on her.
In 1991, the film rights to the story bought Steven Spielberg, who planned to create a cartoon with classic 2D animation. However, in 1995 they moved away to recently open DreamWorks studio, which was co-founded by the director. Ultimately, the film was created using three-dimensional graphics and was released in 2001. Uncredited notedthat the plot is based on Steig's book - similarly, he indicated and in other projects of this franchise. The writer died in 2003, so he dedicated cartoon sequel, released a year later.
Thus, it is incorrect to call Steig the creator of the cartoon; he was the author of the literary source.
Is it true that Tillet was the prototype for Shrek?
The rumor that the prototype of the green ogre was a French wrestler, walks on the Internet since the 2000s. At the same time, there is no reliable evidence on the Internet that Steig knew or even knew about Tiya. Therefore, apparently, we are talking only about a cartoon character.
In publications about Tillet’s connection with Shrek, compare their appearance: both have disproportionately large heads, prominent chins and unusually shaped ears. Some users also note, that people were afraid of both the wrestler and the ogre because of their menacing appearance, although in fact both Tiye (judging by the stories of contemporaries) and Shrek were friendly and nice. In addition, in the cartoon the hero fought with knights in the ring and used wrestling techniques, which also connects him with the French Angel.
However, there are no reliable sources on the Internet confirming the rumor about Tiya as the prototype of Shrek. For example, at the time of writing this analysis on the page about the wrestler in the Russian-language Wikipedia it says, that his unusual appearance "inspired illustrator William Steig to create the image of Shrek." As evidence, a link is provided to a 2017 article on The Huffington Post website, where the writer Steig is not mentioned at all. “Despite Tillet's unexplained physical resemblance to Shrek, DreamWorks, the studio that released the film, has never officially responded to the long-running rumor that Tillet's appearance served as the basis for the animated character. A company representative did not respond to our publication’s request for comment,” it was said in the material. At the same time, the ScreenRant website, which mistakenly called Tillet a boxer, suggested: The producers and animators never confirmed that the French Angel was their inspiration, due to legal reasons.
In 2016, the Yahoo Movies UK portal tried to find out whether the rumor was true. Author articles, like his American colleagues, noted that DreamWorks did not publicly disclose whether the image of the ogre was based on a prototype, but added that the animators working on the cartoon studied the appearance of real people. Below is comment, left by an anonymous user in July 2008 under a post about Tiya: “I worked in the art department at PDI/Dreamworks during the development of Shrek.” I had photographs of unusual wrestlers on my wall - the Swedish Angel, the Irish Angel and the French Angel. Perhaps they could well have inspired the authors who created the Shrek model.” Vicky Jenson, one of the directors of the cartoon, could neither confirm nor deny this information - in a Yahoo comment she said, which does not rule out a similar connection: “Wow, never seen this before, but that doesn't mean the artists who helped create Shrek's design didn't see it. I know we worked hard on his look!”
Shrek could have been based on another person. When Spielberg bought the film rights to the book, planned, that in the two-dimensional cartoon the actor Bill Murray will give his voice to the hero. Later, the main role in the first three-dimensional version of "Shrek" was given to a comedian Chris Farley, which died from a drug overdose in 1997. By words his brother, the artist managed to voice almost all of his character’s dialogues, and there is even a some videos with examples work Farley where is Shrek looks not at all like in the final version of the cartoon. “Originally, Shrek’s character was a little more like Chris—a shy, awkward, innocent guy,” told Kevin Farley. This confirmed and designer Barry Jackson, who worked on that version. As a result, the ogre was voiced Mike Myers, after whose arrival in the project the script rewritten, and the appearance of the heroes changed a lot.
In a 2001 article in Computer Graphics World magazine reportedthat artists began creating digital characters using scanned sculptural models. At the same time, the 3D model of Shrek went through 50 revisions, and in the end the ogre was made thinner to make him look younger and easier to animate. Without providing evidence, the author of a thematic site about Tiya assertsthat, according to numerous rumors, the animators saw the posthumous mask wrestler at the York Barbell Museum, where they allegedly got the idea for the Shrek character. However, he further emphasizes: “Only by talking to those who sculpted the original models of Shrek and drew the sketches, we can prove 100% that Maurice was the source of inspiration.” In turn, the author of the fan resource Shrek History, dedicated to the cartoon universe, stated, that the connection with the wrestler is not confirmed by any reliable source: “This is just an Internet rumor that is now accepted as fact.”
Thus, at the time of publication of this analysis, it is impossible to reliably either confirm or refute the claims that the image of Shrek was based on the appearance of Maurice Tillet. Such publications are based on indirect information, rumors and a message from an anonymous user, according to which the wrestler could be only one of the sources of inspiration. Over the years since the premiere of the cartoon on the Internet appeared There is a lot of concept art, storyboards and other working materials from the production, but there is no connection with Tillet in them.
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Cover photo: Verified collage / DreamWorks / deathmaskofmauricetillet-theangel.blogspot.com
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