Chuck Norris

Vanessa EnglishChuck Norris by Forrest MacCormack.
Source Octobervilledesign.blogspot.co.uk (2009)

Summary

Chuck Norris (full name Carlos Ray Norris) is an international television and film star and a martial artist. He has starred in 23 motion pictures and is considered to be a popular culture icon. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he began to rise as a martial artist, starred in numerous movies and founded his martial arts school, Chun Kuk Do (meaning The Universal Way). Chuck Norris is a renowned martial arts teacher and a six-time undefeated World Karate Champion. He appeared in movies with some of the most famous martial arts fighters, including Bruce Lee. His most popular appearance is the one on the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger, which ran for eight and a half years. In personal life, Norris is a devoted Christian and a political conservative. He has joined several Republican political campaigns, has donated to Republican causes and has written several books on the topic of Christianity.

 

Biography

EARLY LIFE

Chuck Norris was born in 1940 in Ryan, Oklahoma. He is said to have English, Scottish, German, Welsh and Cherokee roots. He was named after Carlos Berry, the minister of his father and had two younger siblings, Wieland and Aaron. When his parents divorced, he moved to Kansas, and later to California, with his mother and brothers. Norris often described his childhood as gloomy, as he was shy and nonathletic. Carlos joined the U.S. Air Force in 1958 and was sent to South Korea, where he got his nickname Chuck and started training in Tang Soo Do. Upon returning to the U.S. he continued to serve in an airbase in California until 1962.(1)

MARTIAL ARTS

After he got discharged from the army in 1962, Chuck Norris opened a chain of Karate schools. He started entering karate tournaments, and although he was defeated the first two times, by 1967 he improved enough to win against strong rivals such as Lewis, Urquidez, Moore, and Sanders. In 1968 Norris suffered the last loss in his career and by the end of the year, he won the Professional Middleweight Karate champion title. He later held this title for six years. He made his acting debut in 1969 in the movie The Wrecking Crew.

Chuck Norris was the first westerner to earn the 8th Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do in the art’s 4,500-year-long lineage.(2) Furthermore, Norris was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame in 1999.

Chuck also holds a 10th Degree Black Belt in Chun Kuk Do, a 9th Degree Black Belt in Tang Soo Do, and black belts in both Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo.

ACTING CAREER

Soon after his first role, Chuck Norris met Bruce Lee at a martial arts event in Long Beach. Several years later, in 1972, he took a role in the movie Way of the Dragon alongside Bruce Lee and it is often thought that this film launched him into stardom. He then started taking acting classes and soon Chuck began receiving many roles, including those in iconic movies such as Good Guys Wear Black, The Octagon, Lone Wolf McQuade, Code of Silence, The Delta Force and Firewalker.

However, Chuck Norris is best known for his role in the series Walker, Texas Ranger. By the late 1980s, Cannon Films, Chuck’s label, started to fade and many feared that his career would also go downhill. Nevertheless, Norris transferred to television and began shooting Walker, Texas Ranger in 1993. The show continued airing for eight years on CBS and has aired on many international channels since then.

PERSONAL LIFE & INTERESTING FACTS

Chuck Norris is also famous for his strong views on religion, politics and the philosophy of life. He is an outspoken Christian and a bestselling author. He wrote several books, including Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America, The Justice Riders and the autobiographical work Against All Odds. He shot several TV commercials promoting Christianity and often writes WorldNet Daily columns. In 1992 Norris founded the Kickstart Kids Foundation to build the strong moral character of young people through martial arts training. Today this foundation works with over 6,500 at-risk young people and over 70,000 youngsters have graduated from its programs.

Chuck Norris is a strong supporter of the Republican Party and has publicly donated funds to its causes. In the 2008 presidential election, he strongly endorsed the Republican candidate Mike Huckabee and made several public announcements promoting Christian and Republican ideas.(3)

Norris has become a notable internet phenomenon since 2004 and the subject of countless jokes and fictional fun facts. More than a million so-called facts about him are floating on the world wide web today, some of them including phrases such as: ‘If you stare at an American Flag long enough, a 3-D image of Chuck Norris will appear’.(4)

CHUN KUK DO

Chuck Norris founded the art of Chun Kuk Do in 1990, modifying Tang Soo Do and adding different elements from several fighting styles. The name of this martial art can be loosely translated as ‘The Universal Way’. This art also includes the practice of forms and many of these forms are taken from Shotokan. About 90 schools around the world teach this art today and the United Fighting Arts Federation, which was also founded by Norris, includes 3,000 black belt bearers world-wide. The martial art of Chun Kuk Do also includes rule ideas of continuous improvement of one’s strength, forgetting the mistakes of the past, looking for the good in all people, enthusiasm about the success of others, open-mindedness and several others.(5)

Useful Links

Official Chuck Norris Website

References

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris
  2. http://www.chucknorris.com/biography.htm
  3. http://hollowverse.com/chuck-norris/
  4. http://www.chucknorris.com/index.htm
Individual
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COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
TIME OF ORIGIN: -
PRACTISED: 84  years old
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FOCUS: 

Martial artist, film producer, screenwriter, actor

ALSO KNOWN AS: Carlos Ray Norris
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Master of the universe!

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Ryan, Oklahoma, US

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NATIONALITY: American
DATE OF BIRTH: March 10, 1940
AGE: 84  years old
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Ryan, Oklahoma, US

RESIDENCE: -
ALSO KNOWN AS: Carlos Ray Norris
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Martial artist, film producer, screenwriter, actor

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Master of the universe!

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COUNTRY: United States
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OPERATIONAL: 84  years old
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ALSO KNOWN AS: Carlos Ray Norris
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Master of the universe!

WEBSITE: www.chucknorris.com

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