Chuck Norris, the martial arts champion who starred in Walker, Texas Ranger and a string of action movies, has died. He was 86.

The Oklahoma-born star first came to prominence when he fought Bruce Lee in 1972’s The Way of the Dragon. His film credits also include 1984’s Missing In Action and 1986’s The Delta Force.

In the mid-2000s, “Chuck Norris facts” became a popular meme format. These outlandish claims circulated online typically made reference to Norris’s strength and machismo, such as: “Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door” or “Chuck Norris beat the sun in a staring contest.”

In March, he was hospitalized in Hawaii after suffering a medical emergency.

Norris was born Carlos Ray Norris in the small town of Ryan, Oklahoma on March 10, 1940. He joined the United States Air Force in 1958 and was subsequently sent to Osan Air Base in South Korea. It was while in South Korea that Norris was given the nickname “Chuck”, and where began learning the martial art Tang Soo Do.

After being discharged from the Air Force in 1962, Norris opened a martial arts studio in Torrance, California and began competing in martial arts competitions. In 1967, he won S. Henry Cho’s All-American Karate Championship at the Madison Square Garden.

At the same tournament the following year, Norris met Bruce Lee, who was giving a demonstration. Lee was working as an action choreographer on the Dean Martin spy comedy The Wrecking Crew, and helped Norris land his first screen role with a small part in the film.

After Lee became an action star in his own right, he gave Norris his breakout role playing his nemesis in 1972’s The Way of the Dragon.

In 1995, Norris told Conan O’Brien about the pair’s famous fight scene and said: “I still consider it a classic. Bruce was really ahead of his time. We worked out for three years when I held the world title, then he went to Hong Kong to pursue his movie career, did a couple of movies, very successful, so he called me up and said: ‘I want to do a movie with a fight scene everyone will remember… I said: ‘Do I have to lose?’ and he said: ‘Yeah, you have to lose!’”

Around the same time, Norris was giving karate lessons to Hollywood star Steve McQueen, who encouraged him to keep acting. Norris played his first lead role in the 1977 trucker action movie Breaker! Breaker!, and by the mid-1980s he had become a bankable action star with a string of box office hits including 1984’s Missing In Action and 1986’s The Delta Force.

From 1993 to 2001, Norris played the lead role of Vietnam veteran Sergeant Cordell Walker in the CBS action series Walker, Texas Ranger. The hit series made full use of Norris’s martial arts expertise, and the character’s habit of solving problems with a high kick helped fuel the later “Chuck Norris facts” internet phenomenon.

He continued to make films into later life, appearing opposite Sylvester Stallone and various other action stars in 2012’s The Expendables 2.

His first wife, Dianne Holechek, died in December 2025 at the age of 84. Holechek and Norris met at North High School in Torrance, and married in 1958 when they were 17 and 18, respectively.

They separated in 1988, after 30 years of marriage, finalizing their divorce in 1989. They had two children together, Mike (born 1962) and former NASCAR racing driver Eric (born 1965).

Norris subsequently married model Gena O’Kelley, 62, in 1998. They shared twins, Dakota and Danilee, 24.

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