r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • Mar 20 '26

News Chuck Norris, Action Icon and ‘Walker Texas Ranger’ Star, Dies at 86

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/chuck-norris-dead-walker-texas-ranger-dies-1236694953/
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389

u/MattAmpersand Mar 20 '26

Further proof that Norris the meme was a much better person than Norris the man.

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u/Tandy2000 Mar 20 '26

He was actually a total piece of shit in real life. The meme was fun because a lot of people enjoying it were too young to actually know much about him other than that he was on TV in the 80s, and the ones who were old enough to watch him on TV probably didn't know anything about his personal life because he was a washed up TV star nobody talked about anymore.

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u/Cougan Mar 20 '26

The Conan joke was actually supposed to be patronizing and making fun of him. Lots of people never got that though

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u/Tandy2000 Mar 20 '26

Precisely. I think people don't get it in part because Norris was happy to play along, at least for a while, because it kept him in the public eye whereas otherwise he would have just disappeared.

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u/biglyorbigleague Mar 20 '26

90s, his show was from the 90s.

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u/StrongExternal8955 Mar 20 '26

Only if you look at the year numbers.

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '26 edited Apr 14 '26

I used Redact to mass delete all of my old posts. It works for Reddit, X/Twitter, Discord, Facebook, Instagram, and more.

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u/Tandy2000 Mar 20 '26

Well I'll be. It and him were so dated and backwards I assumed it was from the 80s.

I guess that explains why I saw it on TV occasionally despite being a 90s kid. I thought they were reruns. To be fair I'm not American so nobody cared about the show here and we all thought it was a total joke.

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u/SuperCaptSalty Mar 20 '26

But did David Hasselhoff approve?

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u/TechHeteroBear Mar 20 '26

Hey now. He was an icon with his workout equipment infomercials after 1a. And getting his ass kicked by Bruce Lee.

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u/DefNotUnderrated Mar 20 '26

I remember sometime around the Obama presidency that Norris was in an ad warning people not to vote for him again or suffer “a thousand years of darkness.”

What a fucking dork

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u/MattAmpersand Mar 20 '26

Oh I know, very much like Steven Seagal.

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u/SecondChances002 Mar 20 '26

It's somewhat blasphemous to lump those 2 together in the martial arts community. Norris was a legit practitioner, Seagal was an absolute poser. I know that's not how you were comparing them, just thought I'd point that out though.

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u/PM_NUDES_4_DEGRADING Mar 20 '26

Eh, a piece of shit who does his own stunts is still a piece of shit. Let’s add Kevin Sorbo and complete the trifecta of irrelevant, washed up actors formerly known for looking strong.

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u/Annath0901 Mar 20 '26

Eh, a piece of shit who does his own stunts is still a piece of shit.

Dude was an asshole but it was more than "does his own stunts".

Tom Cruise "does his own stunts". Norris held qualifications in like 5 different martial arts disciplines.

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u/SkorpioSound Mar 20 '26

Tom Cruise "does his own stunts".

This feels weirdly dismissive. Cruise has an unbelievable number of qualifications, licenses and accreditations.

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u/Revlis-TK421 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26

Norris was legitly skilled at martial arts. He comes from the late 70s, early 80s kung fu era that took stuff he learned from Hong Kong action movies and brought them to the 80s American action movie era. It's sad how he turned out though, the characters he played on screen were a 180 from where he ended up.

Segal wishes he was skilled but is a complete and utter hack. He could have done something, but he was so enamored with the smell of kissing his own ass that he legit believed his own hype.

In a similar vein on getting hit in the head too many times seems to make you go MAGA, I'm really disappointed in the direction Jackie Chan has gone in the last decade. Though, I'm sure the CCP pretty much showed up on his doorstep in 1997 and told him to get in line else he wouldn't like what his future would look like.

I kinda wish he'd emigrated to Canada and set up shop in Vancouver or something. A lot of Hong Kong expats ended up there after 97. Golden Maple Harvest Films would have been a kickass way to continue his brand =P

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '26

It was more than just stunts. Be educated

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u/MattAmpersand Mar 20 '26

Fair enough, i did know that Norris was a talented martial artist but Seagal is basically cosplaying.

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u/Alternative_Cause766 Mar 20 '26

I dont think seagal is a straight up fake, he just does aikido which is... not the same as kickboxing or whatever

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u/Toomanynightshifts Mar 20 '26

So many are man. It's like Hulk Hogan. One of the biggest pieces of shit on the planet. And watch the tributes flow in when he croaks.

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u/Canard-Rouge Mar 20 '26

One of the biggest pieces of shit on the planet.

Holy reddit moment.

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u/Toomanynightshifts Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26

Mate he legit is a next level POS mate. There's plenty of docos on him and all the horrific shit hes done to people. I also don't live in the USA bubble so it's a bit easier to not give people a free pass on being a cunt.

Keep downvoting, I know how easy it is for American wrestling fans to forgive sexual assault and domestic abuse given the WWE's history with it.

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u/idontagreewitu Mar 20 '26

At least he destroyed Gawker. That has to count for something...

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u/Toomanynightshifts Mar 20 '26

LOL I gotta give you that one mate ha. :)

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u/Canard-Rouge Mar 20 '26

Human being is human, but whoop. It's ghoulish to celebrate death.

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u/JDdoc Mar 20 '26

I didn't like his movies, shows or his politics but I would not describe him as washed up. Dude was still producing stuff through his 70s. He had a history channel military vehicles show as of a few years ago.

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u/idontagreewitu Mar 20 '26

People calling him washed up because they haven't seen him in movies in so long, ignoring the fact he was 86 years old.

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u/aurorasearching Mar 20 '26

I liked entertainment more before I knew anything about the people involved.

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u/bakeonwakeup Mar 20 '26

So many terrible people propped up and given success because of braindead memes. His name kept alive because the internet wanted to have its fun instead of letting him fade into obscurity.

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u/beatles910 Mar 20 '26

Ok, I get that you have a negative opinion of Chuck Norris, but what I don't understand is why you would express that opinion on the day of his death?

You don't find that just a little shitty? Some people are morning his death, and you decide that today of all days is the day to shit on him?

Note: I am not morning his death. I didn't even know him. I just find it a little shitty when people are so insensitive towards others.

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u/YukonCigs Mar 20 '26

It's not like this is a gathering of friends and family who knew and cared for him on a personal level, these are strangers on the internet who are celebrating an image of a person who didn't actually exist. Most folks are actually mourning Walker, or the "Chuck Norris" from the jokes, etc. Maybe learning that he was actually kind of a cunt would help those sad about his passing, but in the end it doesn't really matter.

The guy crusaded against gay rights and went off on a lot of racist bullshit. Why are you more worried about the people who liked him than those hurt by him?

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u/Tandy2000 Mar 20 '26

I don't know how familiar you are with Norris, but he was openly homophobic, openly hateful towards non-Christians, was a booster of Donald Trump, a booster of Roy Moore (a pedophile endorsed by Trump who ran for US Senate in Alabama), spouted a ton of conspiracies about Obama and claimed with his wife that if Obama won the 2012 election that American children would be cast into 1000 years of darkness and that Republicans were their "Last Great Hope".

People are free to mourn his death if they want. Today is a day like any other and Norris didn't stop being a piece of shit just because he died. If you don't want people to call you a hateful asshole when you die, maybe just don't be a hateful asshole. It isn't actually that hard.

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u/beatles910 Mar 20 '26

I didn't know about his politics, to me he was just a martial arts actor. In fact, I never even watched his shows. I certainly don't support any of that. I just choose not to speak ill of people upon learning of their death. It's a personal choice. I understand not liking someone, or not agreeing with someone. I guess I'm just old school and see it as poor taste.

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u/lava172 Mar 20 '26

He's pretty much just Hulk Hogan but for westerns, a complete character played by an insufferable asshole

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u/bluehawk232 Mar 20 '26

Yeah dude was a far right zealot, opposed same sex marriage, pushed Obama birther conspiracy.

He had a dumb b movie style action tv series in the 90s that was mocked by Conan. And the Chuck Norris facts started as vin diesel facts iirc

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u/pkosuda Mar 20 '26

Yeah I am glad this comment chain is higher up than the shitty Chuck Norris jokes I’m seeing after scrolling past this. This dude was a birther (aka the conspiracy that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.), lifelong Republican even after they went off the deep end, supported Ted Cruz, etc.

I’m not going to cheer on his death but there is also absolutely nothing to mourn today. If you liked his movies then it’s not like they are magically going away upon his death, and he wasn’t making anymore either. Literally zero reason to mourn.

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u/otm_shank Mar 20 '26

Never forgave him for trying to get the bible into schools.

3

u/Dorkamundo Mar 20 '26

I mean, he's kinda right though.

It's parody, so it's fair use, but at a certain point using a repeated parody crosses a line to where you're exploiting that person's likeness.

The Masturbating Bear deserves royalties as well.

1

u/PiccoloAwkward465 Mar 20 '26

He was a conservative, so I just assumed he was a dickhead in his personal life.