By James R. Hagerty
Chuck Norris, a martial-arts champion who became a movie and television star and had a third act in recent decades as the focus of tough-guy internet memes, died Thursday at the age of 86.
His death was announced in an Instagram post by his family, which didn't disclose the cause.
Norris, who favored quiet John Wayne-style tough guys, starred in movies including "The Hitman," "The Delta Force" and the "Missing in Action" series. He played a lawman in the television series "Walker, Texas Ranger," which ran from the early 1990s until 2001.
A conservative who promoted Christian values, he campaigned for both President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush.
He attracted a new generation of fans in the first decade of the 2000s when a Brown University student, Ian Spector, began distributing internet jokes playing on the actor's tougher-than-anything reputation. One sample: "Chuck Norris can dribble a bowling ball." Another: "Chuck Norris counted to infinity...twice." And: "The flu gets a Chuck Norris shot every year."
Earlier this month, Norris played up his apparent indestructibility by throwing punches in an Instagram posting celebrating his 86th birthday. "I don't age," the post said. "I level up.... Nothing like some playful action on a sunny day to make you feel young."
Beat the odds
Carlos Ray Norris, later nicknamed Chuck, was born March 10, 1940, in Oklahoma. According to his 2006 memoir, "Against All Odds," he struggled for breath after birth and turned bluish purple. "The doctors hastily placed me on oxygen to jump-start my lungs. It worked," he wrote.
He was of Irish and Cherokee descent. His mother, Wilma (Scarberry) Norris, was 18 when he was born. His father, Ray Norris, a few years older, went on regular drinking binges, according to the memoir.
During his father's absences, young Chuck spent part of his childhood in the home of his maternal grandmother in Wilson, Okla., where the family lacked indoor plumbing. His father's search for work later took the family to Southern California. A younger brother, Wieland, was named after his father's favorite beer.
As a schoolboy, Norris wrote, he was shy. Chased home by a bully, he finally fought back -- and won by wrenching one of his assailant's fingers backward. The lesson, he wrote, was that "fear often can be overcome simply by facing it."
The family scraped by with meager income his mother obtained from such jobs as waitress and laundry worker. Instead of toy soldiers, he made do with old clothespins to create battle scenes. "I always wore cowboy boots and a hat," he wrote. "I was a cowboy at heart even then, as I am to this day."
His parents, who by then had three sons, divorced in 1956. His mother later married George Knight, a stepfather welcomed by Norris as "one of the best things that ever happened to me."
Though he played football and competed in gymnastics, he wasn't a star athlete. As a teenager, he also worked as a stock boy in a grocery store.
His hands were weapons
Norris's plan after high-school graduation was to become a police officer. First, however, he enlisted in the Air Force and married a high-school girlfriend, Dianne Holechek. The Air Force sent him to South Korea in the late 1950s. While working as a military policeman there, he joined a judo club. Though he almost immediately broke a collarbone during a practice, he stuck with the sport in the belief that it would make him a better policeman.
Soon he was learning a form of karate known as Tang Soo Do, which described as "the art of empty-hand fighting, using your feet and hands as weapons." He built up calluses on his knuckles by pounding them on rocks and later broke bones in one of his hands smashing roof tiles.
After returning to Southern California, he started a karate club. The Los Angeles Police Department wasn't hiring, so he worked as a file clerk at Northrop Aircraft temporarily and eventually began opening training schools for martial arts.
Seeking to spread word about his school, he entered karate tournaments. Though his spinning back kick impressed rivals, he failed to earn trophies in his first few tournaments. After diversifying his attack, he began winning national and international championships. By age 34, he had won six world karate championships.
After one victory, he was congratulated by the Hong Kong martial-arts star Bruce Lee, who taught him kung fu techniques. Their friendship led to a role in Lee's 1972 film "Return of the Dragon," in which the two faced off in the Colosseum in Rome.
The karate mentor
Norris made more Hollywood contacts after meeting Steve McQueen and teaching him karate. His roster of celebrity students eventually grew to include Michael Landon, Bob Barker, Donny Osmond and Priscilla Presley.
He enrolled in acting school, appeared in a few obscure movies and began searching for scripts. "For three years I knocked on doors all over Hollywood," he wrote. His early movies, including "Good Guys Wear Black" and "A Force of One," began to establish his credentials.
Norris often visited dying children as a representative of Make-A-Wish. He was a co-founder of a nonprofit program, eventually known as Kickstart, that teaches young people martial arts as a way of building character and discouraging drug use.
He divorced his first wife in 1989 and nine years later married Gena O'Kelley. They had two children, twins, born in 2001. Norris also had three children from earlier relationships. His brother Wieland died fighting with the U.S. Army in Vietnam.
In his memoir, Norris noted that he would be 108 if he lived to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary. "I'm planning to be there," he wrote. "Why? Because I believe I can do all things through Christ who strengthens."
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 20, 2026 13:15 ET (17:15 GMT)
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