Actor and martial artist Chuck Norris is now 80 years old – which is hard to believe.
Born Carlos Ray Norris, he earned the nickname Chuck by serving in the Air Force at the age of 18.
From there, he became an expert in various martial arts and began to train celebrities in Hollywood, with his big break coming when Bruce Lee invited him to play a villain in the 1972 film. The way of the dragon.
It was the first of Norris’ countless combat roles, and over the decades he has earned a reputation as the toughest man in the showbiz world – or even the whole world.
Thanks to this reputation, he became the subject of endless memes in the mid-2000s, and the man himself even got involved, as you can see below:
Tributes to the star pour in on social media, and inevitably, almost all of them include a classic Norris gag – you know, ‘Chuck Norris doesn’t celebrate birthdays, birthdays celebrate’, etc. Here is a selection of highlights:
But while it’s easy – and fun – to classify Norris as a tough man, there is actually much more to it than that.
He has written books on a wide range of subjects, from martial arts and exercise, to politics and religion. He created two charities of martial arts and was the subject of various games, including the video game 2017 Chuck Norris nonstop.
He is also the only person to have defeated a brick wall during a game of tennis *.
