The family confirmed the death in a statement published on Instagram Friday morning, describing the passing as “sudden.” Just ten days earlier, on his 86th birthday, Norris posted a video of himself training boxing, with the caption: “I don’t get old. I level up.”
For the Polish diaspora — both in Poland and America — Chuck Norris was more than just an actor. In Poland in the early 2000s, internet “Chuck Norris facts” became a cultural phenomenon on a scale no other foreign celebrity achieved. “Chuck Norris doesn’t do push-ups — he pushes the Earth away from himself.” “Chuck Norris counted to infinity. Twice.” Every Polish teenager knew these jokes, and many adult Poles in America remember them to this day. Norris was an icon of toughness, simple values, and humor that needed no translation.
Carlos Ray “Chuck” Norris was born on March 10, 1940, in Ryan, Oklahoma. He served in the US Air Force in South Korea, where he began martial arts training. He became a six-time world karate champion, and then — encouraged by Steve McQueen — began acting in films. He fought Bruce Lee in “Way of the Dragon” (1972), rescued prisoners of war in “Missing in Action” (1984), and for eight seasons upheld the law in Texas as Ranger Cordell Walker. A veteran, conservative, Christian — and the only man the internet officially recognized as immortal. Until yesterday.
Daily news for the Polish diaspora on poland.us.
