John Aasen
John Aasen was an American silent film actor and sideshow performer who was one of the tallest actors in history.
Early life
Aasen was born on March 5, 1890, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His mother, Kristi from Rollag in Numedal, was an extremely tall Norwegian woman of around 2.20 m in height. It is not certain who his father was, but according to Aasen's sister Evelyn, his father was Alfred Aasen. When Aasen was 10 years old, he and his mother moved from Ridgeway, Iowa, to Sheyenne, North Dakota, with his two younger siblings. Aasen was a Freemason. He rose to the degree of Master Mason at Highland Park Lodge No. 382, Los Angeles on July 14, 1924.When in Sheyenne, Aasen's mother operated a restaurant. He attended school and helped out in the family business. In 1902, Aasen's mother died. He was taken into many homes and families. When a family he was staying with started to operate a hotel in Leeds, North Dakota, he moved with them there. Aasen's growth started slowly. When he was confirmed in the Lutheran faith in Grandfield Lutheran Church near Sheyenne, North Dakota, he was the shortest in his class. According to some sources, Aasen was around 2.74 m or 8 feet, 11½ inches. The Top 10 of Everything 2010 edition states his height at 8 feet, 9.7 inches.
True height
According to the 1978 edition of Guinness World Records he was only 7 feet. Just before his death, at age 46, he was medically measured at 7 feet 0.9 inches, however he had lost some height due to age and could not stand completely straight anymore. In June 2008, Loma Linda University confirmed that the skeleton they had in their collection was John Aasen. A Norwegian man named Bent Lønrusten spent 13 years of his life trying to find out Aasen's true height. He found out that John/Johan was 226 cm / 7' 5" tall. His mother's coffin was 186 cm / 6' 1" long, which made her approximately 183 cm – 184 cm / 6 feet tall. And his sister was maybe around 175 cm –180 cm / 5' 9" – 5' 11" tall.Bent was a guest on a Norwegian podcast called "Rekommandert", talking about Aasen's history and how he found out his true height.
Career
Aasen worked for Midway Chemical, a company based in St. Paul, in 1917–1918. After that, he worked in various shows, including Barnum & Bailey and C. A. Wortham's World's Best Shows.The death of giant George Auger led to Aasen's working in the film Why Worry?. Later, he acted in several other films like Bengal Tiger, Charlie Chan at the Circus, Growing Pains, Should [Married Men Go Home?], Legionnaires in Paris, Two Flaming Youths, The Sting of Stings, Long Fliv the King and the Tod Browning film Freaks, in a small uncredited cameo appearance.