Martial arts legend and actor Chuck Norris has died at the age of 86 following an unspecified medical emergency, his family has confirmed.
In a statement posted on Instagram Friday, the family said they want to keep the “circumstances private” but reassured fans that the actor was surrounded by loved ones at the time of his death.
“We know many of you had heard about his recent hospitalization, and we are truly grateful for the prayers and support you sent his way,” the family said.
The actor, who turned 86 less than two weeks ago, was rushed to a hospital earlier this week on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. TMZ reported on Thursday that the small screen icon was stricken with an unspecified illness but was in “good spirits.”
“As we grieve this loss, we kindly ask for privacy for our family during this time. Thank you for loving him with us,” the family’s statement said.
Norris married his high school sweetheart Dianne Kay Holechek in 1958, when they were both teenagers. The marriage lasted 30 years before ending in divorce in 1989.
They had two sons together, Mike and Eric. During the marriage, Norris had an affair with a woman named Johanna. In his 2004 memoir Against All Odds, Norris admitted that he never told Johanna he was married to Dianne.
The result of the tryst was a daughter, Dina, born in 1963. She tracked Norris down when she was 26, and he met her without hesitation. In 1998, Norris married Gena O’Kelley, a model 23 years his junior whom he had met the previous year, and the couple had twins, Dakota and Danilee, in 2001. He has five children in total.
In his last social media post on March 10, his birthday, Norris quipped that he “doesn’t age,” but instead “levels up.” In an accompanying clip, the octogenarian was fighting fit, sparring with a boxing trainer and delivering weighty gut punches.
This all-action style is what made him a star. After serving in the United States Air Force, Norris won many martial arts championships before turning to acting.
In 1972, Norris secured a pivotal role in Way of the Dragon, alongside fellow martial arts extraordinaire Bruce Lee. The pair had met at a karate championship five years earlier, and remained close friends until Lee’s death just months after the Way of the Dragon was released.
Norris’ big screen success continued with Breaker! Breaker! (1977) and Good Guys Wear Black (1978), before having one of the biggest hits of his career with Lone Wolf McQuade (1983).
He had success a year later with Missing in Action (1984), where he played a military officer who escapes from a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. In Delta Force (1986), he played an American commando dispatched to rescue passengers from Palestinian terrorists. The movie spawned two sequels.
Norris had his greatest success on television as the star of Walker, Texas Ranger on CBS from 1993 to 2001. It ran for eight seasons and made him a household name globally. His last appearance in a major film release was in The Expendables 2 in 2012. Then came the memes.
In 2006, Norris became the subject of an Internet phenomenon—Chuck Norris Facts—a satirical take on his tough, alpha-male persona, which included such gems as “Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door” and “Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost.”
It remains one of the most enduring and widely replicated internet meme formats. “Some are funny. Some are pretty far out. And, thankfully, most are just promoting harmless fun,” he said of the memes in 2006.
Norris said his favorites were: “When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants. Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.”
