Celebrity Biographies
Chuck Norris
More than acting, his thing is to stoke. ‘Action’ not ‘acting’ is what he’s good at, according to Variety. The image of a tough guy capable of defeating the fiercest opponents without breaking a sweat has ended up becoming an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Internet users’ jokes. His blows can close a revolving door, and his tears cure cancer, but unfortunately he has never cried. The incombustible Chuck Norris has demonstrated his karate skills in dozens of low-budget action films.
Born in Ryan, Oklahoma, on March 10, 1940, Carlos Ray Norris, universally recognized as Chuck, is the eldest son of a trucker and his wife. He was an introverted child but full of curiosity. Right after finishing high school, he enlisted in the army to fight in the Korean War. There, assigned to the Osan air base, he discovered martial arts and began his training.
Back in the United States, he won several national and international karate championships in the middleweight categories, especially thanks to his legendary spinning kick, with which he was able to KO his opponents with a single blow. He held the World Champion title between 1968 and 1974.
After becoming a martial arts trainer for celebrities like actor Steve McQueen , with his son he opens a chain of gyms. Besides, Chuck Norris came to invent Chun Kuk Do, his own martial art.
He appeared briefly in the film The Mansion of Seven Pleasures , starring Dean Martin in 1968. Four years later he was asked to play the villain of The Wrath of the Dragon , where he faced none other than Bruce Lee , the biggest star of the martial arts, who also served as a director.
The success of the film led to the late 70s Chuck Norris began to lavish on by-products cut to size, such as The power of the force , The brave wear black or Force 7 . In the 80s, he lived his golden age because together with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger he made ultraviolent invincible heroes fashionable on the screen. His biggest hits were Silent Fury , McQuade, Lone Wolf , Invasion USA and Delta Force , where he appeared alongside another legendary tough, Lee Marvin . But above all he triumphed with Missing in Action, which had two sequels, Missing In Action 2 and Braddock: Missing In Action 3 , the latter directed by Aaron Norris , his little brother, who in subsequent years would be behind the cameras in several of his films.
After his star faded in movie theaters at the end of the 80s, in the 90s he transferred his formula of many hits and little plot to television, where he triumphed with Walker, Texas Ranger , which had a whopping 196 episodes between 1993 and 2001. Among the creators, the figure of today’s renowned scriptwriter and director Paul Haggis stands out .
Divorced from Diana Holechek, with whom he had three children, he joined Gena O’Kelly in 1998, with whom he had twin children in 2001. Off-screen, Chuck Norris has stood out as one of the few Hollywood stars who openly supports the Republican Party, and is in fact a very active militant. In 2008, he helped his ideal opponent against Obama, presidential candidate Mike Hukabee, who appeared in a promotional video talking about the “Chuck Norris Facts,” the popular jokes about the actor’s rudeness, which are popular on the Internet: “Chuck Norris can speak in braille” or “Santa Claus really existed, but he forgot Chuck Norris’s gift”.
He was a bit in the doldrums when they recruited him for The Expendables 2 , where he shares the screen with other of the great movie tow distributors, such as Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham , Jet Li , Dolph Lundgren , Jean-Claude Van Damme and even Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis .
Although the star is preparing The Novice , once again under the orders of his brother Aaron, the truth is that he gives the impression of being practically retired. But no one calls him off, for fear of unleashing one of his roundhouse kicks.