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Chuck Norris

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Carlos Ray Norris Jr. (born 1940), better known in the entertainment world as Chuck Norris, is an American Action movie actor and Hollywood star. The native of Ryan, Oklahoma, has two younger brothers, of which Aaron Norris is a Hollywood producer. Norris is part Cherokee (on his father's side) part British and Irish (on his mother's side).

When Norris was 12, his parents divorced and he relocated to California with his mother and brothers. There, he graduated high school and soon married his girlfriend, Diane Holechek. After marriage, Norris joined the United States Marine Corps and was sent over to South Korea. While in South Korea, Norris became familiarized with the sport of Tong Son Do, later to become known as Karate. It was in South Korea that Norris adquired the nickname Chuck.

Norris returned to the United States in 1962, working for the Northrop corporation and opening a karate school. Many celebrities, including fellow Marine Steve McQueen attended Norris' school, and in 1963, his son Mike was born. A daughter, Dina followed in 1964, and a second son, Eric, in 1965. But another important moment happened in 1964: at a demonstration in Long Beach, Norris met Bruce Lee. Impressed with Norris' ability, it was Lee who began to persuade Norris into trying an acting career.

In 1968, Norris was Karate's world Middleweight champion, and in 1969, he won Karate's triple crown for the most tournament wins of the year, and the fighter of the year award by Black Belt magazine. It was also in 1968 that Norris made his acting debut, in the Dean Martin movie The Wrecking Crew. In 1972, he acted alongside Lee in the movie The Way Of The Dragon, and in 1974, McQueen encouraged him to begin acting classes on the MGM Studio.

Norris began making his own stunts during the filming of 1977's Breaker, Breaker!, and by the 1980s, many of his movies were box office hits. In the middle of the 80's, Norris moved to buddying movie company Cannon Films, and he became one of the new company's stars, but the company fell thru after the murder of it's owner and his wife by their own sons, and Norris would soon find himself doing television instead. He divorced Holechek in 1988, after 30 yeas of marriage.

In 1990, Norris founded the non-profit organization Kick Drugs Out of America, and in 1993, he began shooting the series Walker,Texas Ranger, which lasted eight years on CBS and is currently heavily re runned on other channels.

He re-married in 1998, this time to former model Gina O' Kelley, and they had a couple of twins in 2001, Dakota Alan Norris, a boy, and Danilee Kelly Norris, a girl.

His filmography includes: