“If you get away with this, Morgan, it’ll betray every guy that died in any war we ever had,” said John T. Booker, a former Vietnam War special forces operative. Even from his first big starring role in Good Guys Wear Black (1978), Chuck Norris was concerned about the US military and our veterans.
Bruce Lee was crucial to the development of martial arts in the United States because he made the first martial arts movies that were specifically targeted at an international audience. This is why he chose Chuck Norris to appear as his opponent in Way of the Dragon. Bruce was a U.S. citizen, but Chuck Norris was the first homegrown American martial arts star.
Although he made Breaker! Breaker! after Way of the Dragon, his breakout role was in Good Guys Wear Black. The film contains many of the themes that would run through the rest of his career. First and foremost, the film was distinctly American, and Booker was a maverick. Even the title broke a long-standing convention. For decades, in the old Westerns, the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats.
Rather than wearing a karate uniform, Chuck wore jeans, a suit, or a military uniform. Instead of only fighting with his hands and feet, he also used guns and explosives.
Another key element is that Chuck’s character opposed the Vietnam War but still did his duty, serving and fighting. He was portrayed as a patriot who supported POW/MIAs and veterans while personally opposing the war. Chuck was a strong supporter of Ronald Reagan, and when asked about the themes in his movies, Chuck told reporters, “Kids need heroes. Call it square if you want, but I’m a flag-waver, so I push a lot of Americanism in my movies.”
Norris was a veteran, having served in the United States Air Force as an Air Policeman from 1958 to 1962. His younger brother, Wieland Clyde Norris, a private in the 101st Airborne Division, was killed in June 1970 in Vietnam during the defense of Firebase Ripcord. Norris dedicated the Missing in Action films to his younger brother and was a consistent supporter of POW/MIA causes. He also served as a spokesperson for the Veterans Administration National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans.
Norris led USO tours, visiting troops in Iraq and beyond. He was made an honorary Marine, though the U.S. Marine Corps later joked about it in a tweet, saying it was the other way around: “Chuck Norris didn’t join the Marine Corps; the Marine Corps applied to him.”
He set a personal goal of meeting every Marine deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, shaking each one’s hand. By his own account, Norris shook hands with 37,000 U.S. troops in 2006 alone. He also visited the Task Force 399th Combat Support Hospital at Al Asad Air Base in 2007, signing autographs for wounded Marines.
Troops renamed military vehicles “Truck Norris,” and his image appeared throughout the country. Norris himself wrote about arriving in Iraq to find troops holding a sign reading, “Chuck Norris is here. We can now go home.”
During the 1980s, he promoted home exercise and fitness programs while supporting multiple programs for youth centered on fitness, karate, and providing a solid moral compass for children. His animated cartoon show, Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos, helped bring his message to a new generation of kids.
In the 1990s, he launched the Kickstart Kids program, a martial arts, character, and anti-drug program for children. His TV show, Walker, Texas Ranger (1993 to 2001), emphasized themes of morality, patriotism, and vigilante justice. After Norris rededicated his life as a Christian in the mid-1990s, later episodes of the show featured increased Christian symbolism and a greater emphasis on family issues. The show ran in over 100 countries.
Viewers wrote to CBS specifically to praise episodes in which Christianity was portrayed positively and the gospel was presented directly, with one noting it was “more blatantly gospel-centered than Touched by an Angel.”
The media mistakenly reported that Chuck Norris died on March 19 at age 86, but they all fell for the ruse. Chuck Norris didn’t die; he launched a surprise attack on death.
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