Norris had a rough time in school. Just being called on by the teacher to answer a question would cause him to blush. He began studying Tang Soo Do, in particular, and he was good at it. After he was transferred by to the States, he continued to work out in the form at March Air Force Base in California.
The martial arts were not popular or well-known in the U. He agreed to give a demonstration to soldiers on the base, even prepared a speech. He was about to step in front of a crowd, the center of attention. He had a choice: Retreat, or rely on his dedication and hard work to pull him through. That day his insecurities lifted and the shy schoolboy was replaced by a confident man who would make the martial arts and helping others his life.
After leaving the military, Chuck opened karate schools, taught classes and began competing. In the early 70s, Chuck met legendary actor and martial arts expert, Bruce Lee. They became friends and started working out together. One day, Bruce asked Chuck to play his opponent in a fight scene at the end of a movie he was starring in, and Chuck Norris the actor was born.
In the show, he holds high moral values as he fights crime. In the show, Walker teaches Karate to inner city kids instilling in them a foundation based on character, strength, spirituality and self-worth, with the goal of keeping them out of the gangs. Chuck is a dedicated philanthropist.
Norris became a popular action-film star in the s and starred in his own television series in the s. The oldest of three boys, Chuck Norris once described himself as "the shy kid who never excelled at anything in school.
At the age of 10, Norris moved with his mother and brothers to California. There, he attended North Torrance High School. Norris married his high school sweetheart, Dianne Holechek, in -- the same year he joined the U. Air Force. He left the service in , and started working as a karate instructor. In the s, Norris opened more than 30 karate studios. McQueen encouraged his teacher to try acting. In addition to being an instructor, Norris also was a fierce competitor.
He participated in numerous martial arts tournaments, and he won many of the events he competed in. Norris earned his first World Middleweight Karate Championship title in Proving to be one of the greatest fighters in martial arts, he defended this title five more times. He decided to retire after his victory. While he had made one brief film appearance previously, Norris made more of an impact on movie-goers in 's Way of the Dragon also known as Return of the Dragon in the United States.
One of the highlights of the film was a fight scene between Norris and martial arts action star Bruce Lee, staged in the famed Roman Colosseum. In , Norris had his first starring role in the action film Breaker! Movie audiences loved to watch him mete out swift justice to bad guys in such films as Good Guys Wear Black and Forced Vengeance. In Missing in Action , Norris played a former prisoner of war who returns to Vietnam to free other soldiers still being held.
He did this film and its sequels as a tribute to his younger brother, Wieland, who died in combat in Vietnam. Norris received warmer reviews for his cop movie, Code of Silence , and teamed up with the legendary tough guy Lee Marvin for the military action film The Delta Force Norris' box-office appeal, however, was beginning to fade by the early s.
No longer making hit movies, he made the switch to the small screen with Walker, Texas Ranger. Doctors rushed in to jump-start them and, according to his autobiography "Against All Odds," he was "gulping air like a pro.
It was the closest the Grim Reaper ever got to Chuck Norris. It also was the reason his mother was so adamant about Carlos graduating from high school.
She believed God had a plan for him -- she might have been right. Air Force basic training is where young Carlos officially became Chuck Norris, a new name given to him by a fellow airman. He graduated from basic training, married his high school sweetheart and was sent to Arizona for a year. It was there that he pursued martial arts. He joined the base judo team but quickly found it wasn't for him. Then one day, while walking through an alley, he discovered a dojo practicing tang soo do, the Korean art of empty hand fighting.
Even with an injured shoulder and in a class full of black belts, he took to the art. He studied tang soo do and taekwondo, both Korean martial arts, and became the first Westerner to be awarded an eighth-degree black belt in taekwondo. He briefly worked for Northrop Aviation, but moonlighted as a karate instructor and soon was teaching full time and running a number of martial arts schools. He held the world middleweight karate champion title for six years and was named Black Belt magazine's "Fighter of the Year'' in , eventually founding 32 martial arts schools.
After bit roles, he captured the public's attention with his showstopping turn as Bruce Lee's martial arts opponent in the film "Return of the Dragon. By the late s, he was popular enough to headline his own movies and starred in cult classics such as "Good Guys Wear Black," "Delta Force" and "Missing in Action. Norris is still very much alive, probably because death lives in fear that he might seek revenge for that stunt he pulled when Chuck Norris was born.
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