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Chuck Norris, the former martial arts champion who became one of Hollywood’s most recognisable action stars of the 1980s and 1990s, has died aged 86, his family has announced.
In a statement shared on his official Instagram account on Friday, the family said the actor died on Thursday and asked for privacy.
“While we would like to keep the circumstances private, please know that he was surrounded by his family and was at peace,” the statement said.
The American star, a six-time undefeated World Professional Middleweight Karate Champion, was reported to have been hospitalised in Hawaii earlier on Thursday, according to Variety.
Norris rose to international fame through a string of hard-edged action films including Code of Silence, Missing in Action and The Delta Force, typically portraying stoic lone heroes battling criminals, terrorists and corrupt officials.
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He later became a household name on television as the principled lawman Cordell Walker in Walker, Texas Ranger, which ran from 1993 to 2001.
His film debut came in 1973 when he faced martial arts legend Bruce Lee in a memorable fight scene set at Rome’s Colosseum in The Way of the Dragon.
Decades later, Norris returned to the big screen alongside fellow action stars Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis in The Expendables 2, where they collectively confronted villain Jean-Claude Van Damme.
At the height of his popularity, Time magazine described Norris as “the ultimate tough guy,” hailing his dominance within the low-budget action genre during the mid-1980s.
Beyond cinema and television, Norris became an unlikely internet phenomenon in the mid-2000s through “Chuck Norris Facts,” exaggerated, satirical jokes celebrating his on-screen toughness, which spread virally online and inspired books and merchandise.
Born Carlos Ray Norris on March 10, 1940, in Ryan, Oklahoma, he was the eldest of three brothers, and following his parents’ divorce, the family moved to California.
Norris later spoke of a quiet, introverted childhood shaped by poverty and his father’s struggle with alcoholism. He is survived by his family.