Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris

Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10, 1940) is an American martial artist, actor, film producer and screenwriter. After serving in the United States Air Force, Norris won many martial arts championships and later founded his own discipline Chun Kuk Do. Norris is a black belt in Tang Soo Do, Brazilian jiu jitsu and Judo. Shortly after, in Hollywood, Norris trained celebrities in martial arts. Norris went on to appear in a minor role in the spy film The Wrecking Crew (1969). Friend and fellow actor Bruce Lee invited him to play one of the main villains in Way of the Dragon (1972). While Norris continued acting, friend and student Steve McQueen suggested to him to take it seriously. Norris took the starring role in the action film Breaker! Breaker! (1977) which turned a profit. His second lead Good Guys Wear Black (1978) became a hit, and Norris became a popular action film star. Norris would go on to star in a streak of bankable independently-made action and martial arts films, with A Force of One (1979), The Octagon (1980), and An Eye for an Eye (1981). This made Norris an international celebrity. He went on to make studio films like Silent Rage (1982) with Columbia, Forced Vengeance (1982) with MGM, and Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) with Orion. This led Cannon films to sign Norris into a multiple film deal, starting with Missing in Action (1984), which proved to be very successful and launched a trilogy. Norris started to work almost exclusively on high-profile action films with Cannon, becoming their leading star during the 1980s. Films with Cannon included Invasion U. S. A (1985), The Delta Force (1986), Firewalker (1986), etc. Apart from the Cannon films, Norris made Code of Silence (1985), which was received as one of his best films. In the 1990s, he played the title role in the long running television series Walker, Texas Ranger, from 1993 until 2001. Until 2006, Norris continued taking lead roles in action movies, including Delta Force 2 (1990),The Hitman (1991), Sidekicks (1992), Forest Warrior (1996), The President's Man and its sequel (2001-2002). Norris made his last film appearance to date in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables 2 (2012).

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