Carlos Ray Norris was born on March 10, 1940 in Ryan, Oklahoma. His father was an Irish mechanic, and his mother was of Cherokee descent. He had a modest childhood. It was during his military service in the US Air Force in South Korea in the early 1960s that he discovered tang soo do, a Korean martial art, and never looked back.
Upon his return to the United States, he opened a karate school in California, attended by celebrities like Steve McQueen. Between 1968 and 1974, he was the world champion in the middleweight karate category. With black belts in several disciplines including tang soo do, taekwondo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and judo, he founded his own method called Chun Kuk Do.
Bruce Lee played a crucial role in launching his acting career. In 1972, Bruce Lee offered him the role of the villain in “The Way of the Dragon”. The final fight between the two in the Colosseum in Rome is one of the most famous scenes in martial arts cinema, where Chuck Norris is the only one to lose.
Chuck Norris gained popularity as an actor in the 1980s with films like “Missing in Action” (1984), “Delta Force” (1986), and “Firewalker”, portraying the muscular, patriotic American hero always on the right side of the law. His TV show “Walker, Texas Ranger” aired from 1993 to 2001, making him a familiar face on French television and turning Ranger Cordell Walker into a cult figure.
In the early 2000s, as his acting career slowed down, Chuck Norris gained unexpected fame through the “Chuck Norris Facts”, absurd jokes attributing him with superhuman powers that flooded the internet, turning him into a global pop icon. He embraced this humor in his role in “The Expendables 2” (2012) alongside Stallone and Schwarzenegger.
In 2017, Chuck Norris survived two heart attacks within 45 minutes during a sports event in Las Vegas. While he slowed down his public activities, he remained active on social media. On March 10, 2026, celebrating his 86th birthday, he posted a video on Instagram showing him boxing with a partner.
Nine days later, on March 19, 2026, he was hospitalized in Hawaii after a collapse on the island of Kauai. He passed away the same day, surrounded by his family, leaving behind five children, including twins born in 2001 with his second wife Gena O’Kelley.
