in the ring, 1940 In February 1937, Tillet met
Karl Pojello in
Singapore; Pojello was a Lithuanian
professional wrestler, and persuaded Tillet to enter the business. Tillet and Pojello moved to
Paris for training, and Tillet wrestled for two years in
France and
England until
World War II forced them to leave for the
United States in 1939. In
Boston,
Massachusetts, in 1940,
promoter Paul Bowser pushed Tillet, who was wrestling as The French Angel, as a
main eventer, and he became a large
draw in the area. As a result of his popularity, Tillet was
booked as unstoppable, and was unbeaten for a span of nineteen consecutive months. Tillet was the
AWA World Heavyweight Champion from May 1940 until May 1942. He reappeared with the Boston-based title for a short time in 1944. As a result of his success, several Angel imitators emerged, including Phil Olafsson (Swedish Angel), who also had acromegaly; Tony Angelo (Russian Angel),
Tor Johnson (Super Swedish Angel), Jack Rush (Canadian Angel), Wladislaw Tulin (Polish Angel), Stan Pinto (Czech Angel), Clive Welsh (Irish Angel), Jack Falk (Golden Angel), Gil Guerrero (Black Angel), and Jean Noble (Lady Angel). Tillet competed against Tor Johnson, who was billed as The Swedish Angel on those occasions. By 1945, Tillet's health began to fail and he was no longer advertised as unstoppable. In his final wrestling match, in Singapore on 14 February 1953, working The
National Wrestling Alliance Mid South Area then known as
Tri-State and owned by
Leroy McGuirk he agreed to lose to
Bert Assirati. In 1950, Chicago sculptor
Louis Linck befriended Tillet and made a series of plaster busts commemorating him for his wrestling career. One of the busts is in Chicago's
International Museum of Surgical Science. Another is now in the personal collection of
Bruce Prichard. == Death ==