Chuck Norris, the first action hero of cinema, dies at 86

BarcelonaChuck Norris, an enduring hero of film and television for more than five decades, died this Friday in Hawaii, where he had been hospitalized the day before. Norris, a martial arts champion and karate instructor, was one of the first actors to shape the archetype of the action hero in modern cinema with films such as Delta Force, Missing in action and The Fury of the Dragonin which he faced off against Bruce Lee. On television, his most popular role was in the series Walker, Texas RangerNorris's family announced his death with a statement: "He lived his life with faith, purpose, and an unbreakable commitment to the people he loved. Through his work, discipline, and kindness, he inspired millions of people around the world and left a lasting impact on many lives."

Norris, who was born in 1940 in Ryan, Oklahoma (USA), is one of the first exponents of the great tradition of combat sports athletes who have become Hollywood stars. In his case, his time in martial arts was not a mere formality: Norris held black belts in karate, Tang Soo Do, and taekwondo, and won several karate tournaments. His athletic success led him to create a chain of karate schools with many Hollywood celebrities as clients. His friendship with Bruce Lee, who was also a martial arts champion, paved the way for his film debut. The Fury of the Dragon (1972), which culminated in a spectacular fight between Norris and Lee. The film's huge success, Bruce Lee's highest-grossing film to date, laid the foundation for Norris's future career.

Encouraged by Steve McQueen, whom he taught martial arts, Norris took acting classes and appeared in some martial arts productions, but his first starring role was in The power of force (1977), a revenge film that begins to define the actor's identity as a cinematic hero: a solitary man who resorts to violence when he deems it necessary and who dispenses justice where the law fails to reach. A vigilante type in the fascist tradition of Charles Bronson.The city's vigilante (1974). And like Bronson, Chuck Norris ended up signing with the production company that most exploited his interest in this type of film: Cannon Films. Missing in action (1984), about a colonel who travels to Vietnam to rescue American prisoners, cemented Norris's image as a cinematic hero: a man of classic, unwavering masculinity, unyielding in combat, and with, shall we say, traditional moral and political convictions.

Norris had spent a few years in the army before trying his hand at martial arts, so he felt right at home in the violent, vigilante, and militaristic films of Cannon, led by the Israeli and Zionist producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. In Norris's other big hit of the time, Delta Force (1985), the actor teamed up with Lee Marvin as leaders of a special operations group rescuing hostages from a group of Palestinian terrorists—two out of every three villains in Cannon films were Palestinian terrorists. In USA invasion (1985), Norris plays a former CIA agent who confronts Cuban guerrillas smuggling drugs into the United States to buy weapons and invade Florida. The image of Chuck Norris, armed to the teeth, blowing up enemies of the homeland is surely the most faithful representation of the rightward shift in American popular cinema during the 1980s.

The actor occasionally tried to offer other acting styles, for example in The Temple of Gold (1986), an adventure film with a comedic twist that tried to replicate the success of the saga Indiana JonesIn 1985, without abandoning the crime action genre, he also tried to offer a more layered and nuanced interpretation than usual to thrillerCode of silenceBut what the public wanted was the more hyperbolic and basic version of Norris, which he continued to offer in sequels to Missing in action and Delta Forceincreasingly less popular and geared towards the domestic market.

Chuck Norris was the first pure action movie hero, a genre that, in reality, was born as such in the 1980s as an extreme and violent distillation of the codes of classic genre cinema. Norris doesn't have one foot in the western He lacked the crime genre like Clint Eastwood, and the dramatic range of Steve McQueen or Charles Bronson; of course, he also lacked the presence and acting talent of cinematic icons like John Wayne or Burt Lancaster. But he did have enough personality to connect with a wide audience and a very physical fighting style that compensated for his dramatic limitations. Over the years, he stopped exploiting his physique and limited himself to relying on charisma in television productions like the police series. Walker, Texas RangerVery popular during the nineties and, thanks to reruns, also during the first decade of the 21st century.

Unexpectedly, his definitive consecration as a pop culture star came in recent decades thanks to the internet and the memes of a high school student, Ian Spector, who found in Norris the perfect comedic vehicle. Jokes and stories of a rather exaggerated masculinity, to the point of absurdity, with Chuck Norris as the protagonist, began to circulate massively on the internet, social networks, and mobile phones, turning the actor into a comedic genre in himself. It was no longer about parodying the actor, but about creating jokes as absurd as "Chuck Norris built the hospital where he was born." This Friday, many will remember the one that said: "Once, Death had a near-Chuck Norris experience."