Chuck Norris

Martial Art Legends

Carlos Ray '' Chuck ''Norris

Born:March the 10th 1940

We all Know of Chuck Norris a world class Martial artist who came to fame in the Bruce Lee film ''Way of the Dragon''but before this he was a competition fighter who won numerous fights in competition and was the world Karate champion a astonishing 7 times.

But first lets take a look back.Norris was born in Ryan, Oklahoma, the son of Wilma and Ray Norris, who was a mechanic, bus driver, and truck driver. Norris' paternal grandfather (an immigrant) and maternal grandmother were of Irish descent, while his paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather were Cherokee Native Americans .His parents divorced when he was sixteen and moved away to Kansas and later on California.

As a child Norris was shy and uninterested in studies ''he day dreamed a lot''Often bullied he dreamed of beating his adversaries.Home life was hard on Norris as his father was a drinker and this affected him.

In 1958 he signed up to the Air force and became a Air Policeman (AP). It was from this that he was sent to Osan air base in South Korea and this led him to undertaking the art of Tang Soo Do.He attained Black Belts in Tang Soo Do and from this came Chun Kuk Do a art he devised himself from his training's.

He later went on to set up federations such as Kickstart ,a organisation to stop drugs in schools.Norris left the air force in 1962 while based at a base in the USA.He set up Karate schools in his local area's ,these schools had students that were famous or where about to be,like Steve Mc'Queen and Chad Mc'Queen .

Competition Years

In his first two tournaments Norris was beaten by the Legendary Joe Lewis and Allen Steen.

But with perseverance he continued to compete and began winning against top fighters like Skipper Mullins, Arnold Urquidez, Victor Moore, and Ron Marchini.

In 1968 Norris felt his last defeat Louis Delgado.He avenged his defeat to Delgado and in turn won the Professional Middleweight Karate champion title, which he held for six consecutive years.In 1969, he won Karate's triple crown for the most tournament wins of the year, and the Fighter of the Year award by Black Belt Magazine.

Now Chuck Norris's own Chun Kuk Do has many schools and students must abide by the Tenants set out by Chuck.In a similar way to Taekwondo's or Tang Soo Do's own Tenants.

Below they are listed for you

I will develop myself to the maximum of my potential in all ways.
I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements.
I will continually work at developing love, happiness and loyalty in my family.
I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.
If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.
I will always be as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness.
I will maintain respect for those in authority and demonstrate this respect at all times.
I will always remain loyal to my God, my country, family and my friends.
I will remain highly goal-oriented throughout my life because that positive attitude helps my family, my country and myself.

Film Awaits

Chuck's first film acting role came when he was offered a part in the Dean Martin film ''The Wrecking Crew'' in 1969, but it was after attending a martial arts demonstration in Long Beach California in 1972 that changed it all for ever, because it was here that he met Bruce Lee and the two hit it off and Chuck was offered a part in ''Way of the Dragon'' , a role that Bruce Lee originally wanted Joe Lewis for but because of a misunderstanding at the time between Bruce Lee and Joe Lewis the role went to Chuck Norris.

From this he was cast by Golden Harvest in a Tan Tao Liang action-er titled Slaughter in San-Francisco (1974) , again he played the villain, but Western releases site Norris as the main star ,in some territories the film is labelled as ''Karate Cop''.

Far Left the poster for Slaughter in San Francisco , and just to the left the Karate cop version

artwork.

But in 1977 Chuck Norris was given his first starring role in Breaker Breaker which led on to the 1978 film 'Good Guys Wear Black'' which was the film that kick started his film career .

After this many films followed from the mighty ''An Eye for an Eye'' which also starred Mako and Lee Van Cleef. Other films that did the rounds and set him on the road to box office hit where ''The Octagon'' Force of One''Forced Vengeance''Silent Rage .

But some of his biggest films came from the deal with Cannon films and it's producers Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus .

In 1984 Chuck starred in ''Missing in Action '' a film that dealt with the Vietnam war and it's unsung hero's .( Chuck's younger brother Weiland died in Vietnam in 1970).

The film was a huge success and spawned two sequels both dealing with ''POWS'' missing in action.

Delta Force 1986 saw Chuck Star alongside Hollywood Legend Lee Marvin. The film is inspired on the events of the taking of flight TWA847 and the raid at Entebbe.

Shot in Israel with a ensemble cast this was the first time Chuck Norris got to work with such a cast of actors and actresses including Robert Forster , Shelley Winters , Michael Balsam as well as a unaccredited early role from Liam Neeson.

The film was not with out it's critics, the film came in at a lengthy 129 minutes and it was over half way through before any real action was portrayed . The film played on creating tension for the big finale by the Delta Force.

Suzuki made a specially modified motorbike with onboard rocket launchers and gadgets for Chuck Norris's character.

The film was also sadly the last on screen appearance for Lee Marvin who passed away the following year.

Chuck Norris Facts

In 2005 a absurd thing happened when on the internet started a list of facts about Chuck Norris that hails him as the greatest Hero of mankind and that he is so tough that no one dares confront him.

It all started as a Vin Diesel gag but various people converted it to Chuck and it is this that has taken the world by storm.

There are over 400 known facts with others appearing all the time.In the face of it Chuck has expressed a liking for them and make him laugh (though some are a bit near the mark,though those are rare).

Chuck Norris Fights Crime Worldwide

A true story about a bakers in Croatia Where they put up a poster of Chuck and all their troubles ceased,read below.

*This article was taken from Tonyrogers.com who reported the story in the West.

Store bosses have seen off burglars by placing a life-sized photo of Hollywood action star Chuck Norris in the window.

The posh bakery shop in Split, Croatia, had been broken into almost every week until they put up the poster of the karate champ with a sign saying: "This shop is under the protection of Chuck Norris."

Now the bakery hasn't had a single burglary for more than a month.

Sales assistant Mirna Kovac said: "To be honest we just started it as a joke but it really has worked. Thieves haven't been anywhere near us for ages. People seem to respect him.

"Everyone around here has seen his films and he's quite a popular character, perhaps even among criminals, so they've decided to leave us alone."

She added though: "We have had a few customers come in and ask us whether they can get Chuck's autograph.

They really believe he is sitting in our storeroom out the back ready to pounce on any burglars."

Now that's crazy ,it seems that the facts have adverse affects on people ,maybe Chuck should run for President.

The Facts

Here are some other Facts about Chuck ''You know there True!

1. A ducks quack does not echo. Chuck Norris is solely responsible for this phenomenon. When asked why he will simply stare at you grimly.

2. A high tide means Chuck Norris is flying over your coast. The tide is caused by God pissing his pants.

3. A study showed the leading causes of death in the United States are: 1. Heart disease, 2. Chuck Norris, 3. Cancer

4. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, Chuck Norris can actually roundhouse kick you yesterday.

5. After taking a steroids test doctors informed Chuck Norris that he had tested positive. He laughed upon receiving this information, and said "of course my urine tested positive, what do you think they make steroids from?"

6. Aliens do exist. They're just waiting for Chuck Norris to die before they attack. ? They will never attack

7. Aspirin doesn't work within a 50-mile radius of Chuck Norris.

8. Bullets dodge Chuck Norris

9. Chuck Norris built a better mousetrap, but the world was too frightened to beat a path to his door.

10. Chuck Norris can do a roundhouse kick faster than the speed of light. This means that if you turn on a light switch, you will be dead before the light-bulb turns on.

Training and Total Gym

In 1997 Chuck was awarded a 8th degree Black Belt in Taekwondo and believed to be the first westerner to achieve this Goal, but Norris was misled as some years before there where two other Westerners that achieved this and one of them received his 9th degree in the same year as Chuck.

I know i have checked!

In 2000, Norris was presented the Golden Lifetime Achievement Award by the World Karate Union Hall of Fame.And in 2005 he set up the World Combat League (WCL), a full-contact, team-based martial arts competition. Each team (consisting of 5 men and 1 woman) is from a different city or region, and the league intends to grow to more cities in the United States and have both European and Asian leagues.

On top of that he also has his own range of Gym equipment called ''TOTAL GYM'' . Right is a video of Chuck and his wife( former model Gena O'Kelley) demonstrating the system.

Walker Texas Ranger

The character Cordell Walker is as famous as the star that portrays the character of Cordell Walker. Chuck Norris portrayal of the famous Texas Ranger is in fact inspired by his earlier film ''Lone Wolf McQuade - 1983 '' where Chuck also plays a Texas Ranger named J J McQuade whose a bit of a loner and lives with a wolf.

Though Cordell Walker is a Texas Ranger the two characters don't appear to have the same traits , Walker is a family orientated man , clean cut but the characters basic instinct surrounding his job is the same as the character of J J McQuade.

Walker was originally devised by the Canon Group, but after they went belly up the rights where transferred to CBS. Starting in 1993 with three pilot episodes it was later green lit for it's first full on season in 1994.

The show continued for a full eight seasons up to 2001 plus a 2005 film special .

Over the years the series showcased Chuck's martial artistry as well as allowing the character to develop through relationships and so forth. It is evident in the last two seasons were the new characters of Francis Gage and Sydney Cooke where introduced that this was probably down to ease the workload on Chuck Norris as the two new characters also contributed to the action scenes in a big way. But then when your approaching 60 years of age i guess your entitled to slow down a bit.

What was unique about Walker was that you could watch each episode as a stand alone story ( though some stories did crossover a couple of episodes at times) , the characters still developed through each episode but the episodes main story was always something new . And more then often then not episodes would guest star various actors and martial artists , many of whom had there first break in the series as well as already established stars.

Over the course of the 201 episodes your spot the likes of Michael Ironside, Richard Norton , Sammo Hung , Bill Wallace , Tobey Maguire (Spiderman) , Rod Taylor , Roddy Piper , and Danny Trejo ,plus many more.

The 2005 Film Walker Trial by Fire also showcased some good talent and was a fitting finale to the series.

But i think one of the most amazing things about Walker is that there has never been a show that has focused on Martial arts within it's story lines that has run for so long. The fact that it ran for eight seasons is a tribute to the makers and it's stars. And i don't think we will ever see a western series that has a focus on Martial arts run for so long.

** of Note in 2019 it was announced that CBS is going to reboot the series with Supernatural Star Jared Padalecki playing Cordell Walker , I for one don't hold much for this as Padalecki is not a martial artist and does not hold the values of a martial artist to portray the character with righteousness the way Chuck Norris did. Also this comes around the same time said Padalecki was arrested for Assault.

There's only one Cordell Walker and his name is Chuck Norris.

image copyright (c) CBS Television

Expendables 2

2012 Saw Chuck Norris retrn to the big screen in the sequel to Sylvester Stallone's ensemble cast film series the Expendables .

Expendables saw Chuck as the character John T Booker ( A homage to Chuck's Breakthrough film '' Good Guys Wear Black'')

Chuck Agreed to the role providing the film was rated PG13 as he didn't approve of the excessive swearing and over sadistic violence of the first film.

This was all agreed and the film was shot as such , but when the film went to the rating board it still got rated 'R' , because of this the makers used digital effects to reinstate more sadistic and blood letting kills into the film.

Something Chuck was not happy about. It's also the reason why Chuck never returned to the third film .

But in all honesty the film gave Chuck Norris a good bit of publicity and fans where happy to see Chuck back on screen after so many years away.

Prior to this Chuck Norris last film appearance was in the 2005 film 'The Cutter '' and TV film Trial by Fire also in 2005.

Chuck Norris Turns 80

On March 10th 2020 Chuck Norris turned 80 years old. Over the years Chuck Norris has championed benefits for kids through his Kick-start for Kids Organisation .

There was to be a big Celebration for his 80th on the 23rd March , this has been postponed till April the 24th 2021 in light of World events surrounding the Covid 19 Virus outbreak .

The event will now take place in April 2021 when Chuck and his fans can celebrate his 80th and 81st birthday.

*More on this in 2021

The Films of Chuck Norris Reviewed on site	Year
Good Guys Wear Black - Breakthrough film for Chuck , a espionage thriler with action	1978
The Octagon - Chuck Fights Ninja's from his past in this classic. Also stars Richard Norton	1980
Expendables 2 - Chuck Joins a ensemble cast to kick some Butt!	2012

Kick'em In The Ghoulies

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