Chuck Norris, the martial-arts meister turned actor—and, later in life, entrepreneur and ambassador for brands from Toyota to Glock—died on March 19 in Hawaii. He was 86.
While Norris never quite reached the stratospheric fame of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone—two other muscle men who found their way to Hollywood stardom—his tough-as-nails persona, heroic roles, and eviscerating roundhouse kick turned him into a pop-culture giant. It was an image that Norris, largely retired from acting by the early 2000s, would trade on for the last 25 years of his life.
In a sense, he still is. As California music producer DJ Ill Will said in a Facebook post earlier today, “Chuck Norris, the only person I expected to defeat death.”
