UNITED STATES – Chuck Norris, the US martial artist and Hollywood action star most famous for his role in “Walker, Texas Ranger”, has died, his family said Friday (20 March). He was 86.
“It is with heavy hearts that our family shares the sudden passing of our beloved Chuck Norris yesterday morning,” the family said in a statement on Instagram.
“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.”
US media reported Thursday that Norris had been hospitalised for an undisclosed condition while on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The family said it would like to keep the details of his passing private, adding “please know that he was surrounded by his family and was at peace”.
Several days before his death, Norris celebrated his 86th birthday with a video of him boxing on social media, saying “I don’t age. I level up.”
From Air Force to action hero
Born Carlos Ray Norris in Ryan, Oklahoma on 10 March 1940, the martial arts expert turned actor starred in numerous action films since his debut with a cameo in the 1968 Dean Martin film “The Wrecking Crew”.
It was during his service as a young man in the US Air Force at an airbase in South Korea that Norris developed his passion for martial arts, acquiring a taste for tang soo do, a Korean martial art based on karate.
He left the Air Force in 1962 and established a martial arts studio in Los Angeles. By 1967, with a US karate championship title earned at Madison Square Garden, Norris became the sought-after instructor for celebrities including Steve McQueen, Priscilla Presley and Donny Osmond.
His epic fight with kung-fu superstar Bruce Lee in the 1972 film “The Way of The Dragon” helped turn Norris into an icon on both big and small screen. The film grossed 1 000 times its $130 000 budget.
In 1983, he starred as a taciturn Texas ranger in “Lone Wolf McQuade”, which provided the template for the cult TV series “Walker, Texas Ranger”. The show ran for eight seasons and spawned countless action-man jokes and memes.
Personal life
An evangelical Christian, Norris grew up as a shy child in a family of three boys raised mainly by their Irish mother after her divorce from their alcoholic father.
He had two sons from his first marriage to his high school sweetheart Dianne Holechek, which lasted 30 years, and a son and a daughter with his second wife Gena O’Kelley. Norris also had a daughter from an affair during his first marriage.
A Republican, he campaigned against Barack Obama in 2012 and offered support to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu in 2013. In 2017, he recovered from two cardiac arrests. He later became the public face of arms company Glock in 2019, despite an epidemic of gun violence in the US.
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