Chuck Norris, the square-jawed martial artist and Hollywood action hero who became a symbol of rugged American masculinity as star of the CBS series “Walker, Texas Ranger” and later as a popular internet meme, died Thursday, his family said.
He was 86.
It is with heavy hearts that our family shares the sudden passing of our beloved Chuck Norris yesterday morning,” Norris’ family said in a post on Instagram on Friday. “While we would like to keep the circumstances private, please know that he was surrounded by his family and was at peace.”
To the world, he was a martial artist, actor, and a symbol of strength. To us, he was a devoted husband, a loving father and grandfather, an incredible brother, and the heart of our family.He lived his life with faith, purpose, and an unwavering commitment to the people he loved,” Norris’ family added.
He was best known for his nine-season run as Texas Ranger Sergeant Cordell Walker, a steely-eyed former Marine who dispensed Lone Star justice with roundhouse kicks and a decidedly old-school moral code. The series remains a staple of syndicated television.
Norris rose to fame as a martial arts champion and trainer before going on to appear in a string of movies, most notably the Bruce Lee classic “The Way of the Dragon” as well as the 1980s thrillers “Lone Wolf McQuade,” “Missing in Action,” “Code of Silence” and “The Delta Force.”
Carlos Ray “Chuck” Norris was born March 10, 1940, in Ryan, Oklahoma, the son of a homemaker mother and a World War II veteran father who he described as an alcoholic. In interviews decades later, Norris recalled feeling shy and unathletic as a child, describing his early years in stark terms.
“Most people see a person in his success mode and they say, ‘Boy, was he lucky. He was a karate star. Then he did movies.’ But it was extremely difficult. Extremely difficult,” Norris told The Los Angeles Times in September 1988.
He went on to join the United States Air Force. He was stationed in South Korea, where he embraced the nickname “Chuck” and started studying Tang Sang Do, a Korean martial art tradition. When he returned to the U.S., he started entering martial arts competitions and went on to win a series of key championships.
Norris also earned a reputation as a karate trainer to the stars. He struck up a friendship with Bruce Lee, which led to Norris’ first on-screen role as the Hong Kong star’s opponent in “The Way of the Dragon.” In that seminal kung-fu film’s climactic scene, Lee and Norris’ characters face off inside the Colosseum in Rome.
Hollywood icon Steve McQueen urged Norris to take acting classes and pivot to leading roles. Norris soon started racking up credits in 1970s action flicks like “Breaker! Breaker!,” “Good Guys Wear Black” and “A Force of One.”
