{"id":339820,"date":"2026-03-20T22:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T22:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/339820\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T22:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T22:10:14","slug":"martial-arts-master-and-actor-chuck-norris-dies-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/339820\/","title":{"rendered":"Martial arts master and actor Chuck Norris dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chuck Norris, the martial arts grandmaster and action star whose roles in Walker, Texas Ranger and other television shows and movies made him an iconic tough guy \u2014 sparking internet parodies and adoration from presidents \u2014 has died at 86.<\/p>\n

Norris died Thursday (local time), in what his family described as a \u201csudden passing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we would like to keep the circumstances private, please know that he was surrounded by his family and was at peace,\u201d the family said in a statement posted to social media.<\/p>\n

Before he would become a star in movies and on TV, Norris was wildly successful in competitive martial arts. He was a six-time undefeated World Professional Middleweight Karate champion. He also founded his own Korean-based American hard style of karate, known sometimes as Chun Kuk Do, and the United Fighting Arts Federation, which has awarded more than 3300 Chuck Norris System black belts worldwide. Black Belt magazine ultimately credited Norris in its hall of fame with holding a 10th-degree black belt, the highest possible honour.<\/p>\n

Born Carlos Ray Norris in Ryan, Oklahoma, on March 10, 1940, he grew up poor. At age 12, he moved with his family to Torrance, California, and joined the US Air Force after high school, in 1958. It was during a deployment to Korea that he started training in martial arts, including judo and Tang Soo Do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went out for gymnastics and football at North Torrance high,\u201d he told The Associated Press in 1982. \u201cI played some football, but I also spent a lot of time on the bench. I was never really athletic until I was in the service in Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he was honourably discharged in 1962, he worked as a file clerk for Northrop Aircraft and applied to be a police officer, but was put on a waitlist. Meanwhile, he opened a martial arts studio, which expanded to a chain, with students including such stars as Bob Barker, Priscilla Presley, Donny and Marie Osmond, and Steve McQueen, whom he later credited with encouraging him to get into acting.<\/p>\n

From one studio to another<\/p>\n

\"Chuck<\/p>\n

Chuck Norris with Bruce Lee on the set of his movie Meng Long Guo Jiang (The Way of the Dragon). (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Norris made his film debut as an uncredited bodyguard in the 1968 movie The Wrecking Crew, which included a fight with Dean Martin. He had also crossed paths with Bruce Lee in martial arts circles. Their friendship \u2014 sometimes, as sparring partners \u2014 led to an iconic faceoff in the 1972 movie Return of the Dragon, in which Lee fights and kills Norris’ character in Rome’s Colosseum.<\/p>\n

He went on to act in more than 20 movies, such as Missing in Action, The Delta Force and Sidekicks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to project a certain image on the screen of a hero. I had seen a lot of anti-hero movies in which the lead was neither good nor bad. There was no one to root for,\u201d Norris said in 1982.<\/p>\n

In 1993, he took on his most famed role, as a crime-fighting lawman in TV’s Walker, Texas Ranger. The show ran for nine seasons, and in 2010, then-Governor Rick Perry awarded him the title of honorary Texas Ranger. The Texas Senate later named him an honorary Texan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not violence for violence\u2019s sake, with no moral structure,\u201d Norris told the AP in 1996, speaking about the show. \u201cYou try to portray the proper meaning of what it\u2019s about \u2014 fighting injustice with justice, good vs. bad. \u2026 It\u2019s entertaining for the whole family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris also made a surprise comedic appearance as a decisive judge in the final match of the 2004 movie Dodgeball. He only on occasion had taken acting roles in recent years, including 2012’s The Expendables 2 and the 2024 sci-fi action movie Agent Recon. He’s due to appear in Zombie Plane, an upcoming film starring Vanilla Ice.<\/p>\n

Chuck Norris: the man, the meme, the legend<\/p>\n

\"Chuck<\/p>\n

Chuck Norris in 2012. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

It was around the time of Dodgeball that his toughman image became the stuff of legend, literally: \u201cChuck Norris Facts\u201d went viral online with such wildly hyperbolic statements as, \u201cChuck Norris had a staring contest with the sun \u2014 and won,\u201d and, \u201cThey wanted to put Chuck Norris on Mt Rushmore, but the granite wasn\u2019t tough enough for his beard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris ultimately embraced the absurdity of the meme craze, putting together The Official Chuck Norris Fact Book, which combined his favourites with supposedly true stories and the codes he aimed to live by. He would also write books on martial arts instruction, a memoir, political takes, Civil War-era historical fiction and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo some who know little of my martial arts or film careers but perhaps grew up with Walker, Texas Ranger, it seems that I have become a somewhat mythical superhero icon,\u201d Norris wrote in the forward to the Fact Book. \u201cI am flattered and humbled.\u201d<\/p>\n

That book raised money for a nonprofit he founded with President George HW Bush that promoted martial arts instruction for kids.<\/p>\n

The intentionally outlandish statements featured in the 2008 Republican presidential primary, when Norris endorsed Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and shot an ad playing on the Chuck Norris facts.<\/p>\n

\u201cChuck Norris doesn\u2019t endorse. He tells America how it\u2019s going to be,\u201d Huckabee said in the campaign ad.<\/p>\n

\"Republican<\/p>\n

Republican presidential hopeful, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, right, appears with actor Chuck Norris on January 20, 2008 in Navasota, Texas. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump’s supporters later promoted “Trump Facts\u201d in the same vein, and political pundits tried it as well, describing the commander-in-chief’s decision to seize Venezuela’s sitting president, Nicolas Maduro, as a \u201cChuck Norris Moment\u201d, and its initial effect on oil prices a \u201cChuck Norris Premium\u201d.<\/p>\n

Norris was outspoken about his Christian beliefs and his support for gun rights, and backed political candidates for years \u2014 he even went skydiving with Bush for the former president’s 80th birthday. As for Trump, Norris endorsed him in the 2016 general election and wrote guest columns praising him without explicitly endorsing him in the days before the 2020 and 2024 elections.<\/p>\n

Norris is survived by five children: stunt performers Mike and Eric with his late ex-wife Dianne Holechek, twins Dakota and Danilee with his wife Gena Norris, and Dina, the result of an early 1960s \u201cone-night stand\u201d revealed in his autobiography.<\/p>\n

Norris celebrated his birthday just over a week before his death, posting a sparring video on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t age. I level up,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chuck Norris, the martial arts grandmaster and action star whose roles in Walker, Texas Ranger and other television…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,409,111,139,64,69,417],"class_list":["post-339820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-nz","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}