Chuck Norris died on Friday morning in Hawaii, his family confirmed. He was 86.
The family said he had been hospitalised the previous day and was surrounded by loved ones when he died. They asked that the circumstances of his death remain private. “To the world, he was a martial artist, actor, and a symbol of strength,” they said. “To us, he was a devoted husband, a loving father and grandfather, an incredible brother, and the heart of our family.”
What set Norris apart from the crowded field of 1980s action stars was simple: he was the genuine article. While others played fighters on screen, Norris held black belts across six martial arts disciplines — among them an 8th degree in Taekwondo, a 9th degree in Tang Soo Do, and a 10th degree in Chun Kuk Do, a hybrid style he developed himself. He had earned those credentials before Hollywood ever came calling, and they gave his screen presence a weight that was difficult to manufacture.
Born Carlos Ray Norris in Ryan, Oklahoma, he discovered martial arts while stationed at Osan Air Base in South Korea during his US Air Force service in the late 1950s. After his discharge in 1962 he opened a chain of karate schools in California — Steve McQueen was among his students — and it was McQueen who pushed him towards acting. His screen breakthrough came after he played the nemesis of Bruce Lee’s character in the 1972 film “The Way of the Dragon,” a role that announced him to global audiences.
Through the late 1970s and 1980s Norris became the defining action star for audiences who wanted something harder-edged and less ironic than Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis. He made eight films for Cannon Films from 1984, including the “Missing in Action” series — in which he played a soldier rescuing American POWs from Vietnam — and “Code of Silence” (1985), widely regarded as his best work. The “Missing in Action” films carried personal weight: his younger brother Wieland had been killed serving in Vietnam.
As his film career slowed, he pivoted to television. “Walker, Texas Ranger,” which ran on CBS from 1993 to 2001, became the role most audiences would remember him by — a laconic Texas Ranger dispensing justice with his fists. The show ran for eight seasons and made Norris a fixture in living rooms long after his cinema peak had passed.
In his final decades, something unexpected happened: a new generation discovered Norris through internet memes attributing increasingly absurd superpowers to him. The jokes — “Chuck Norris doesn’t do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down” — made him more famous to people who had never seen a single film than he had ever been at the box office. He appeared to take it in good humour.
He is survived by his wife Gena O’Kelley; sons Eric and Mike; daughters Dakota, Danilee and Dina; and a number of grandchildren.
