Chuck Norris never dreamed of becoming an actor. At first he was a military man, then he was seriously engaged in martial arts – in a word, nothing foreshadowed Chucky’s resounding success in the cinema. How did Norris manage to get on the same set with Bruce Lee, and even the first time?
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Early Years.
Norris’s childhood can be summed up in just three words – need, hunger, wandering. Chuck Norris, whose filmography today includes about forty films, did not even think about acting. For the first twenty years of his life, the young man thought only about how to survive. At first, Norris worked as a loader in his spare time from school and indulged in dreams of how to put on a police uniform in the future. But getting into the police service was not so easy, so at the age of 19, Chuck decides to enlist in the US Air Force. Norris immediately landed in South Korea. According to the actor, the service at the military base was rather boring, so he started training to kill time. So the young man became interested in judo. When Chuck returned to the US, he already had a black belt in this type of martial art.
Movies with Chuck Norris: List. “The Way of the Dragon”
Martial arts became Norris’ life. In 1963, he was already at the head of his first karate school. By 1968, one school had turned into a whole network. In addition, Chuck Norris in 1968 becomes the winner of the light heavyweight karate world championship. The actor held his championship title for seven years. The Norris school was coached by actor Steve McQueen. It was he who advised the film crew of the action movie “The Way of the Dragon” with Bruce Lee in the title role to invite his teacher to the screen test.
So Chuck Norris, whose filmography subsequently consisted entirely of action movies, got his first movie role.
True, Norris then got the role of a notorious villain. So in the future, he was expected to have projects in which he was forced to play anti-heroes.
Already after filming the second film, Norris realized that as an athlete he was impeccable, but as an actor he could not cope with many things. Therefore, Chuck decided to take a course in acting courses.
Missing In Action (1984)
In the 90s. Norris’ business went uphill – he became a very popular actor. Chuck Norris, whose films were loved by martial arts fans, has finally changed to an anti-hero in a more positive screen image. “Missing” Norris plays the role of Colonel Braddock, who goes to Vietnam in search of missing soldiers. Of course, the action of the film is accompanied by constant skirmishes and spectacular battles. The action movie enjoyed some success, so a year later a prequel to the first film, Missing 2: The Beginning, was released. This time, the viewer is shown the period of the main character’s life, when he himself was in Vietnamese captivity. With incredible efforts, Braddock manages to escape from the POW camp and return to America.RELATED:
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Invasion USA (1985)
Quite famous is the picture “Invasion of the USA”, in which Norris again played the hero-savior. This time, the hero of Chuck Norris has to save America from Latin American militants, led by a Soviet intelligence agent. Chuck Norris, whose films by that time had already enjoyed great success, in the form of Matt Hunter alone and rather effectively cracked down on his old enemy. Chuck Norris, whose full filmography includes 36 films, did not always choose successful projects for filming. So “Invasion of the USA” was completely defeated by American critics. The hero of Norris was called a “cardboard copy of Rimbaud”, but most of all, viewers and critics were disappointed by anti-Soviet propaganda, which during the Cold War got tired of everything.
Chuck Norris: Filmography. “Code of Silence 1985”
More successful can be called the film “Code of Silence”, which was released in 1985. In the center of the plot is the everyday life of the principled policeman Eddie Cusack, who serves in the department for combating drug trafficking. When Cusack gets involved in an internecine war between the Colombian drug clans, the plot becomes more and more complicated. Since the problems with the mafia are added to the problems with personnel within the drug department. Films featuring Chuck Norris are traditionally replete with scenes of bloody battles and brutal murders. Do not deviate from this tradition and the subsequent thriller “Hero and the Monster”, action movie “Delta Force” and the third part of the film “Missing”
“Walker, Texas Ranger (1993)”
“Walker, Texas Ranger”. This series has become one of the most successful projects in the career of an actor. The serial film about the tough Walker was released on screens starting in 1993 and ended only in 2001. The plot revolves around Texas Ranger Cordell Walker, who is a veteran of the Vietnam War and lives by the code of the Old West. This was perhaps the coolest role of Chuck Norris. The series was shown in 38 countries around the world, and Norris became famous like never before.
“The Expendables 2 (2010)”
After the role of the Texas Ranger, Norris’ career began to decline. More or less successful was the film with the participation of the actor “President’s Man”, filmed in 2000. Sixty-year-old Norris played in this film Joshua McCord, a secret American special agent. McChord for a long time carried out exclusively personal assignments of the president, but the time has come for him to retire. Norris’s character can’t leave the post just like that – he must raise his successor, who becomes Dick Slater. In 2002, a sequel to this film was released called Line in the Sand. In 2012, the second part of Sylvester Stallone’s unique project was released on cinema screens, which brought together all the action stars of the 80-90s in one action movie. Chuck Norris also played in this film.