Chuck Norris, the famous martial arts expert and karate teacher who became a star in the 1980s with movies like *Missing in Action* and the long-running CBS show *Walker, Texas Ranger*, has passed away. He was 86 years old.
Norris passed away suddenly on Thursday in Hawaii after being hospitalized, his family shared in a statement.
They said, "He lived his life with faith, purpose, and a strong commitment to the people he loved.
Through his work, discipline, and kindness, he inspired millions around the world and made a lasting impact on many lives."
They added, "Although our hearts are broken, we are deeply grateful for the life he lived and the unforgettable moments we shared with him.
The love and support he received from fans around the world meant a lot to him, and our family is truly thankful for it. To him, you were not just fans, you were his friends."
They also said they "would like to keep the circumstances private" and that "he was surrounded by his family and was at peace.
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Unlike some other actors who claimed to be fighters, Norris was real.
He had black belts in karate, Tang Soo Do, and taekwondo, and trained with Bruce Lee. He even fought him in *The Way of the Dragon* (1972). On screen, he often played loners and, like one of his heroes, John Wayne, he only used violence when there was no other choice.
Encouraged by Steve McQueen, who had asked Norris to become an actor after giving him private karate lessons for years, Norris had his big break with *Lone Wolf McQuade* (1983), where he played a Texas Ranger facing off against an arms dealer and martial arts expert, David Carradine.
Norris later signed with the Cannon Group, a production company run by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, and became a big hit for the small studio.
He played Col. James Braddock, a former POW returning to Vietnam to save captured soldiers, in *Missing in Action* (1984). Though critics didn't like the movie, it was loved by audiences, and it led to a 1985 prequel and a 1988 sequel.
He once said, "Steve McQueen once said, 'Look, the critics can praise you to the end of the world, but if your movie makes $2, you're not going to work.
So the thing is, as long as people come and see your movies, you're going to keep working, no matter what the critics say.' So when I got criticized by the critics, I'd try to keep that in mind."
Norris continued his success with *Code of Silence* (1985), *Invasion U.S.A.* (1985), *Firewalker* (1986), and *The Delta Force* (1986), which led to a follow-up in 1990.
*Walker, Texas Ranger*, created by Al Ruddy, Leslie Greif, Paul Haggis, and Christopher Canaan at Cannon Television, started in April 1993 and ran for nine seasons with around 200 episodes, plus a 2005 special.
Norris played Cordell Walker, a U.S. Marine turned Texas Ranger, on a show that had the feel of a classic Western, airing on Saturday nights on CBS like *Gunsmoke*.
The CW announced a new *Walker* series in December 2020, starring Jared Padalecki, which lasted four seasons.
Chuck Norris was the oldest of three sons, born on March 10, 1940, in Ryan, Oklahoma, near the Texas border.
His father, Ray, was a mechanic and truck driver, and his mother, Wilma, did odd jobs to help support the family. He wrote in his 2004 memoir, *Against All Odds: My Story*, that "genetically speaking, I am equal parts Irish and Native American."
His father had a drinking problem and often left the family, so Norris looked up to Western heroes like John Wayne, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers at the movies.
He said, "I determined that I would grow up one day to be like them. Their behavior in their films was governed by the 'Code of the West' — loyalty, friendship, and integrity. They were unselfish and did what was right even when the risk was great. Years later I would recall those Western heroes when I developed the kind of character I wanted to play as an actor."
His family moved often, eventually settling in Southern California in 1950.
Norris graduated from North Torrance High School and then joined the U.S. Air Force. One of his barracks buddies gave him the nickname Chuck, which he kept.
While stationed at Osan Air Base in South Korea, Norris started training in judo and Tang Soo Do, the art of empty-hand fighting.
As he learned more, he mixed in other styles to create his own fighting style called Chun Kuk Do.
After leaving the military in 1962 — by then a first-degree black belt in Tang Soo Do and a third-degree brown belt in judo — Norris worked as a file clerk for Northrop Corp while teaching karate at his mom’s backyard and eventually opening his first karate school in Torrance.
He also competed in fights, with a reported record of 65-5, and won six world karate titles.
Norris met Bruce Lee during a tournament at Madison Square Garden in 1967, and they became friends.
Lee, serving as an adviser on *The Wrecking Crew* (1968), hired Norris to play a bodyguard in the Matt Helm movie starring Dean Martin.
The two lost touch after Lee moved to Hong Kong to further his movie career, but they reunited for an epic fight in the Roman Colosseum in *The Way of the Dragon*.
Chuck Norris opened more karate schools in Los Angeles, and one of them, the Chuck Norris Karate School, was mentioned in the movie Dolemite (1975), which had a lot of fight scenes. He also gave private lessons to famous people like Bob Barker, who once broke a couple of his ribs during a workout, Priscilla Presley, and Steve McQueen.
When Chuck Norris stopped competing in 1974, Steve McQueen encouraged him to try acting.
McQueen said, “You either have a certain presence that comes across on the screen, or you don’t. I think you may have it. I strongly suggest that you give it a try.”
He acted in a few movies, like Slaughter in San Francisco (1974), where he played a trucker looking for his brother.
He also used some of his former black-belt students in the cast. He starred as a CIA commando named John T. Booker in Good Guys Wear Black (1978), which also had James Franciscus, Dana Andrews, and Anne Archer, and it made a surprising amount of money.
He showed off his fighting skills in A Force of One (1979), The Octagon (1980), and An Eye for an Eye (1981).
Then he played a sheriff who fights a man with superhuman strength in Silent Rage (1982), his first movie from a major studio.
Chuck Norris turned down about a dozen TV offers before he was asked about the show Walker.
In an interview in the mid-1990s, he said he liked the idea of a modern Western story. He liked the action, the relationships between characters, and the humor in the show.
He did some acting in a cartoon called Karate Kommandos in 1986.
He also starred in two President’s Man movies for CBS and later appeared in movies like Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) and Expendables 2 (2012).
His fans made funny stories about his toughness, like: “When the boogeyman goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.”
Or “When Chuck Norris crosses the street, the cars have to look both ways.” And “People wanted to add Chuck Norris to Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn’t tough enough for his beard.”
He wrote books like The Secret of Inner Strength (1987), The Secret Power Within: Zen Solutions to Real Problems (1996), and Black Belt Patriotism (2008).
He also started the World Combat League in 2005, which is a team-based fighting competition.
His youngest brother, Aaron, who is a stuntman and a karate expert, directed and made episodes of Walker and some of Chuck Norris’s movies.
(The family’s middle son, Wieland, died in Vietnam.)
In 2023, it was announced that Chuck Norris had settled a lawsuit against CBS and Sony Pictures.
He claimed he was shortchanged at least $30 million from the profits of the show Walker, Texas Ranger.
He is survived by his second wife, Gena, whom he married in 1998, and their children: Mike, Dina, Eric (a stunt coordinator who also directed some Walker episodes), Danilee, and Dakota.
In the 1990s, Chuck Norris admitted that his movies were violent, but he said it was okay because of the “moral structure.”
He said, “When you are fighting good against evil, when the good guys are taking on the bad guys and winning, then I think that’s good. Unfortunately in our society, in reality, that’s not always the case. It’s nice to be able to do movies where people say, ‘This is what should happen, this is the way it should be in real life.’ That’s why I think I’m so successful.”
