Photo: Newsday

1987: World’s Heaviest Man
is Stuck in Hempstead Doorway

In 1987, Walter Hudson caught the public’s attention when rescue workers freed him after he had become wedged in the doorway of his Hempstead home. At that time, he weighed more than 1,000 pounds. Aided by comedian and health guru Dick Gregory, Hudson subsequently lost hundreds of pounds, and was able to leave his house for the first time in 18 years in 1988. Hudson ran a catalogue company that sold clothes for large women, conducting business from his home. When he died of a heart attack in 1991, 46-year-old Hudson weighed a reported 1,125 pounds. To remove his body, emergency workers cut a hole in his bedroom wall, then used a forklift. “The Guinness Book of World Records” once dubbed Hudson the heaviest man on earth, with a waistline that was nine feet in diameter. He is shown here in an undated photo.

–Cynthia Blair