John Hurt, David Bowie, Bradley Cooper and Mark Hamill have portrayed, either on stage or on screen, THIS MAN (**First and last real names needed**) who died in 1890 after asphyxiating because he wanted to sleep lying down "like normal people for once" but could not because of the size of his head. (edited at 11:33 am, March 21, 2016 (PDT))
Original question: John Hurt, David Bowie, Bradley Cooper and Mark Hamill have portrayed, either on stage or on screen, THIS MAN (**First and name real names needed**) who died in 1890 after asphyxiating because he wanted to sleep lying down "like normal people for once" but could not because of the size of his head.
John (or Joseph) Merrick [The song erroneously calls him John]