OBITUARY | Chuck Norris, star of ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’, dies at 86

Chuck Norris, the former martial arts champion and 1980s action-film hero who fought the bad guys inCode of Silence,Missing in ActionandThe Delta Force,and upheld the law in the TV seriesWalker, Texas Ranger, died on Thursday, his family said in a statement on his Instagram account on Friday. “While we would like to keep the circumstances private, please know that he was surrounded by his family and was at peace,” the statement read. The six-time undefeated World Professional Middleweight Karate Champion, whose tough-guy image inspired satirical “facts” that made him an internet phenomenon, had been hospitalised in Hawaii on Thursday, Variety reported.

Norris starred in more than two dozen films portraying silent loners, soldiers, lawmen, veterans and All-American heroes who captured criminals, released prisoners of war, rescued hostages and battled terrorists. With his roundhouse kicks he fought martial arts icon Bruce Lee in Rome’s Colosseum in his 1973 film debutThe Way of the Dragon. Along with actor Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis he helped defeat villain Jean-Claude Van Damme in the 2012 blockbusterThe Expendables 2.

Time magazine described him as “the ultimate tough guy”. “In his strictly wham-bam B-movie genre, Norris, a former karate champion, has become the undisputed superstar,” it said in 1985. Norris dodged bullets, landed kicks squarely on an opponent’s jaw and dismissed multiple villains at a time in his action-packed films.

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His macho image made him a hit at the box office and on the small screen. From 1993 to 2001, he played Sgt Cordell Walker, an upstanding lawman, former Marine and martial arts expert inWalker, Texas Ranger. The bearded actor, writer and producer became an online cult hero in 2005 when an American student created what became Chuck Norris Facts, online jokes about the actor’s physical prowess and masculinity that became a viral sensation and inspired several books.

Carlos Ray Norris was born on March 10, 1940 in Ryan, Oklahoma, the oldest of three brothers. The family moved to California after his parents divorced.

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