Family


In 1963, his son Mike was born; a second son, Eric, followed in 1965. After 30 years of marriage, Norris and Holechek divorced in 1988. He married again in 1998, this time to former model Gena O'Kelley, and she delivered twins in 2001: Dakota Alan Norris, a boy, and Danielle Kelly Norris, a girl.


Recent Years


Norris has spoken out with his wife in favor of teaching Bible elective classes in public schools. He has also authored the fictional "Justice Riders." In 2005 Norris founded the World Combat League.


Norris is a staunch Conservative Republican and a prominent supporter of George W. Bush. He also is a card-carrying member of the NRA. Despite his political views, Norris is close friends with Rosie O'Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg.


Norris is an avid golfer and participates in many celebrity golf events.

Norris has trained many celebrities in the martial arts. Bob Barker is one of these celebrities, and Norris appeared as a guest on a special primetime "The Price is Right" celebrating Bob's birthday. He helped his contestant win the pricing game.


Norris was originally in mind as the role of Red Foreman on the FOX sitcom "That 70's Show", but he was still filming Walker, Texas Ranger at the time, so Kurtwood Smith was cast instead.


Popular Culture


Norris regained popularity as a cult icon during the mid-2000's, especially on the Internet. Among the more high-profile parodies and references are these instances:


• Late Night with Conan O'Brien's parent company, NBC, acquired Universal in early 2004, giving O'Brien permission to show footage of Walker, Texas Ranger without paying royalties. O'Brien and his writers subsequently created a new segment in which O'Brien shows short, out of context clips for comedic purposes. The "Walker, Texas Ranger Lever" quickly became one of the most popular segments on Late Night, with Norris himself showing up to parody his show and using his martial arts on O'Brien. This segment has been credited as jump-starting the Norris craze and leading to enough interest to produce a Walker, Texas Ranger TV movie.
See the clips here


• Norris is the object of an Internet phenomenon known as Chuck Norris Facts documenting and proclaiming fictional, often mock-heroic feats and characteristics, which began to circulate in late 2005. Norris has written his own response to the parody on his website, stating that he doesn't feel offended by them, and finds some of them funny. He recently read 10 of them on a television show, and said that his favorite one is "They once tried to carve Chuck Norris's face into Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn't hard enough for his beard.

Click here to see him reading his 10 favorite 'Facts'


• Norris was parodied in a Saturday Night Live short film entitled "The Young Chuck Norris", aired January 21, 2006.
See the SNL spoof by clicking here


Chuck Norris in his Total Gym Fitness commercial.


• Chuck Norris sponsors the infomercial, Total Gym Fitness, which usually airs in the late night or early morning hours.


• During the March 10, 2006 show of ESPN's 'Pardon the Interruption', numerous references were made to Norris on his birthday, including all of the cut-out heads on the set, which are usually of current sports stars, being replaced with Chuck Norris heads. Also, several humorous comments in reference to Chuck Norris were made by co-host, Tony Kornheiser, in a similar tone to that featured on the Chuck Norris Facts website.


Click here to see the Chuck Norris Photo Album Video - pretty funny


• Norris served as a guest referee at Survivor Series 1994 for the casket match between The Undertaker and Yokozuna. A similar match had taken place at Royal Rumble 1994 where ten other wrestlers beat down The Undertaker. Norris was called upon to ensure a similar situation didn't take place. As guest referee, he kicked Jeff Jarrett square in the stomach.


• In the popular internet flash video and song accompanying it, The Ultimate Showdown, Chuck is said to descend from the heavens. During the video's main plot, in which the various heroes of pop culture fight in a death duel, Chuck takes out both Batman/Bruce Wayne, and Indiana Jones before being mutilated by a group of random other pop icons.

Click on Flash Portal to view 'The Ultimate Showdown'





Sources: Wikipedia
The Chuck Norris Official Website

Biogs.com
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Star Pulse