Obituary: Colourful George (The Animal) Steele was ‘one of a kind performer’
Pro wrestling Hall of Famer George (The Animal) Steele has died at age 79, the WWE announced Friday.
No cause of death was given for the former grappling great, who performed with a shaved head, green tongue and sometimes a stuffed chimp.
Steele, who would yell, “I’m not an animal. I’m a people,” in ringside interviews early in his career, was born James Myers.
Steele was one of the more unorthodox wrestlers of his time, with his green tongue, hairy torso and a penchant for eating turnbuckle pads, which he called his “turnbuckle snack.”
Tributes were quick to pour in Friday for Steele, who started his working life as a high school teacher from Pittsburgh with a master’s degree from Central Michigan University.
“I worked with him a lot when I first got to @WWE and was able to learn so much,” wrestler Triple H tweeted. “My condolences to his family.
“George Steele was a one of a kind performer who could make fans smile or boo . . . and his competitors laugh or cry.”
“God Bless George ‘The Animal’ Steele,” tweeted Hacksaw Jim Duggan. “A friend over the years. RIP.”
Steele’s arch-enemy in the ring was Bruno Sammartino. He recounted in a radio interview why he couldn’t wear a mask in his hometown of Pittsburgh for a match with Sammartino.
“I had my mask, and cap and gown and said I was going to be ‘The Student,’ ” Steele told KDKA Radio Morning News in 2013.
“They said no, we don’t want a masked man, we want you. I was a teacher and coach and didn’t want to use my real name, so we came up with a new name.”
He said the name “Steele” came because Pittsburgh’s nicknamed the Steel City.
Despite the showmanship, he said his matches with Sammartino had a strong element of reality.
“We had some great runs together, and with Bruno and I, it was as tough as you could get in the ring,” Steele said. “It was the real deal. We’d beat each other up — we always knew who was going to win, but we really went at it the hard way.”
He said that he got his nickname when New York fans started screaming at him that he was an animal.
“I grabbed the mic and I yelled ‘I’m not an animal, I’m a people!’,” he said in the interview. “The more I did that, the more they called me ‘The Animal.’ ”