Norris was a black belt in ‘Karate’, ‘Taekwondo’, ‘Tang Soo Do’, ‘Brazilian jiu jitsu’ and ‘judo’.
After serving in the ‘United States Air Force’, Norris won many martial arts championships and later founded his own discipline, ‘Chun Kuk Do’.
In Hollywood, Norris was noted as a trainer of celebrities in martial arts. He went on to appear in a minor role in “The Wrecking Crew” (1968), when friend and fellow martial artist Bruce Lee invited him to play one of the main villains in “The Way of the Dragon” (1972).
While Norris continued acting, his student actor Steve McQueen suggested he take film work seriously, with Norris cast in the feature “Breaker! Breaker!” (1977).
His second lead, “Good Guys Wear Black” (1978), became a hit, and he soon became a popular action film star.
Norris went on to appear in a streak of bankable independently made action and martial arts films, including “A Force of One” (1979), “The Octagon” (1980) and “An Eye for an Eye”.
He went on to make studio films including “Silent Rage” (1982) with Columbia, “Forced Vengeance” (1982) with MGM and “Lone Wolf McQuade” (1983) with Orion.
Cannon Films then signed him into a multiple film deal, starting with “Missing in Action” (1984), launching a franchise trilogy. Other films with Cannon included “Invasion U.S.A” (1985), “The Delta Force” (1986) and “Firewalker” (1986).
Apart from the Cannon films, Norris made “Code of Silence” (1985)…
…and played the title role in the CBS TV series “Walker, Texas Ranger” from 1993 to 2001.
He eventually sued CBS for unpaid residual profits and basically gave up acting, until offered a cameo in Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables 2 (2012).
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