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Lord Littlebrook, famed wrestler, dies at 87

Posted: Sep 14th 2016 By: Alonzo Weston

St. Joseph lost one of its heroes from the golden age of wrestling. Edward Tovey, known the world over as champion dwarf wrestler Lord Littlebrook, died last Friday.

He was 87 years old.

To family and friends, “Brook” was a straight-talking, honest guy who believed in hard work and who loved his family and life. The “Lord” part of his wrestling name came from a nod to British nobility.

“He was a real charismatic person who loved to laugh and joke,” said Joyce Tovey who was married to the famous wrestler for 11 years. “A lot of people were drawn to him because of the stories he told and the things he did.”

The things Lord Littlebrook did in his lifetime read like a fabled story.

Born in London on Jan. 3, 1929, Tovey ran away from home and joined the circus at the age of 14. Tovey performed with a circus acrobat named Burt Lancaster, before he became a famous movie actor, when the circus toured the United States. When the circus went out of business, Tovey took up dwarf wrestling at the urging of a friend.

He quickly built a reputation as a champion wrestler, wrestling in places as far away as Australia, Japan and Thailand. He won several dwarf wresting championships, was named dwarf wrestler of the year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated and was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2004.

Joyce Tovey met Littlebrook through the girlfriend of another wrestler. When she first saw him, he was eating chow mien out of a can, sitting on a hotel bed.

“He was known as Lord Littlebrook and Roger Littlebrook; he managed several big boys too, so depending on who he was managing, his name would change a little bit every once in awhile too,” she said.

In the wrestling days, Littlebrook was home very little, but still had time for family. He even did charitable work in the community, especially for kids.

“He loved kids. He did a lot of charity work here in town. He’d go up to the hospital with one of his wrestlers, Geno Adams, and visit kids in the hospital. When he had kids of his own, he slowed down a little bit.”

Daughter Lori Tovey remembered bragging about her dad at show-and-tell activities in school. He was her hero beyond being just a famous wrestler. A dwarf too, Lori said he taught her about respecting herself no matter her size.

“He taught me not to be ashamed of what we are, to be proud to be a midget and we were no different than any of the tall people. If there was a cup on the top shelf we wanted, there was a way for us to find to get that down without asking for help from somebody that was tall,” Lori Tovey said.

He was a flirt too. And he loved making blueberry pancakes.

“The way he would tell if we were full, he used to come push on our belly and say, ‘Oh, you got room for one more,’ so he made sure our bellies were hard and full and he used to make stacks of pancakes for us,” she said.

Littlebrook trained Levert “Bobo” Johnson along with other dwarf and regular-sized wrestlers. Johnson said he was a mentor and friend as well.

“One of the things I’m going to miss about him is his character and his stamina and his understanding of life. He always had a big heart and he cared about everybody,” Johnson said.

Known for his aerial assaults in the ring, Littlebrook still could do back flips into his 70s. But after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease 14 years ago, his physical skills began to diminish. He became bedridden seven years ago.

“Toward the end, he didn’t have a vocabulary. He’d try to tell you stuff, but words just didn’t come out,” Joyce Tovey said.

Lord Littlebrook died at home with family.

Son Bobby Tovey carried on his father’s wrestling tradition. He goes by the name of “Beautiful Bobby Dean” in the ring. He misses so many things about his father, all the nicknames he gave each of his seven children, all the wrestling moves he taught him.

“Just so many things I’ll miss about him. Can’t touch him anymore, can’t hug him anymore. It’s hard,” he said.