Articles and interviews
with Chuck Norris
Interview with Chuck and Gena Norris:
(Chuck Norris: Against All Odds By Scott Ross and Cheryl Wilcox The 700
Club CBN.com)
He grew up dirt poor in rural Oklahoma. He had a God-fearing mother and
an alcoholic father. His boyhood heroes were the cowboy film stars of yesteryear:
Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Hopalong Cassidy. In the cinematic Old West,
good always triumphed over evil. It’s a theme that carried Carlos, or as
we know him today, Chuck Norris, from hardship to wholeness. Against all
odds, Chuck Norris became more than just a Hollywood film and television
star.
SCOTT ROSS: I’m a cowboy at heart. My early heroes were the same guys, Roy
Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, John Wayne, so when I watch Walker,
I mean, to have a cowboy hero, what is it about heroes and cowboys?
CHUCK NORRIS: I don’t know because growing up, not having a father around,
you have to create your own image of a father, and that became the image
of a father that I would like to have had.
SCOTT ROSS (reporting): Chuck’s father abandoned the family, so his mother
moved her three sons to California. Life was tough, but she was a God-fearing
woman. Chuck admits he was a very insecure young man.
SCOTT ROSS: It’s an interesting paradox, perhaps to the image of the Chuck
Norris who goes around kicking hindermost parts, that you’re basically a
shy guy.
CHUCK NORRIS: Yes.
SCOTT ROSS: You’re not really an aggressive person at all.
CHUCK NORRIS: No.
SCOTT ROSS: What is that thing in you, then, that as a shy person that you
molded this other thing that people look in your eyes and say, 'Back off'?
CHUCK NORRIS: It’s a determination because I grew up extremely shy and introverted
all my life -- and non-athletic. People have a hard time believing that,
but again, not having a father around, being shy, I just never participated
in sports that much. It wasn’t until I went to Korea out of high school
and got exposed to the martial arts for the first time and was just completely
enamored with the physical ability of the martial arts and making my black
belt.
SCOTT ROSS (reporting): After serving in the Air Force, Chuck returned to
the States and immediately capitalized on his martial arts training. Within
a decade, he was a six-time undefeated World Middleweight Karate Champion
and the owner of numerous karate schools. His name was synonymous with the
martial arts. By his mid '30s, Chuck took a giant leap into acting. He wrote
and starred in his first film, Good Guys Wear Black. Chuck was now a box
office success. SCOTT ROSS: It was not a big-budget film at all.
CHUCK NORRIS: A million dollars.
SCOTT ROSS: A million dollars to make it? How much did you make on it?
CHUCK NORRIS: Twenty-eight million.
SCOTT ROSS: Not bad!
CHUCK NORRIS: It was amazing because at that time I was living a secular
life.
SCOTT ROSS: When you were a kid, you had made some commitment to the Lord.
There was an event you attended. It was a Billy Graham crusade, and you
committed your life to the Lord.
CHUCK NORRIS: I gave my life to the Lord at 12. I was baptized at 12. Then
it grew stronger. And when I got to go to a crusade for Billy Graham, unfortunately
a lot of times in the entertainment industry, sometimes you lose sight of
what’s really important in your life. I lost a marriage because of it.
SCOTT ROSS: Bruce Lee; Steve McQueen; a tragic story, your brother; Dan
Blocker; Michael Landon; Lee Atwater; Robert Urich – if we live long enough,
we’re going to see many of our friends pass away.
CHUCK NORRIS: Oh yeah.
SCOTT ROSS: And in each case, it had a serious, profound affect on you.
What was it that death said to you in the midst of your life, and where
was God? What do you think God was saying to you in the middle of those
moments?
CHUCK NORRIS: The one that had the most affect on me was Lee Atwater. He
was former President Bush’s [George Bush Sr.] campaign manager. Lee was
in his early '30s. He was just an incredible guy. When Lee got a tumor,
the tumor in his brain, his head swelled up to the size of a pumpkin. When
he was in the hospital dying, I went to visit him. He only let a very select
group of people come in to see him, and I was fortunate enough to be one
of the people. So I go in there, and there’s, like, four of us in there,
and Lee looks at me and he motions for me to come forward. I step forward.
He starts trying to talk to me, so I have to bend down because he can just
barely whisper. I bent down, and he says, 'Chuck, trust in the Lord. I love
you.' That’s the last thing he said. I was like in shock there for a moment,
so I stepped back and I had to leave immediately because I was starting
to cry. I went in the car and just started crying. When Lee said that, 'trust
in the Lord,' all of a sudden, I said, 'That’s what’s happening because
I drifted away from my faith.' I started thinking about it, but I was still
so wrapped up in the entertainment field and trying to be more successful
in my acting that, again, I just kind of let it slide out of the side of
my head there.
SCOTT ROSS (reporting): It was easy for matters like faith, immortality,
and the meaning of life to take a back seat to fame and fortune. After all,
Chuck was now riding high on the success of his celebrity and his television
series, Walker, Texas Ranger.
CHUCK NORRIS: Finally, my best friend said, 'You have got to get your act
together. You are really not a happy guy. There’s a woman I want you to
meet. I’m going to invite her to Dallas.' Gena Norris
SCOTT ROSS: Gena, you’d been married previously. Did you know of this guy?
GENA NORRIS: Never knew of him.
SCOTT ROSS: Come on!
GENA NORRIS: Never knew of him.
SCOTT ROSS: You didn’t know he’d fought Bruce Lee?
GENA NORRIS: I was raising two kids, so I worked all the time. I didn’t
get to watch TV.
SCOTT ROSS: Yeah, but this is Walker.
GENA NORRIS: I didn’t know what Walker was. But after we had a chance to
talk and get to know each other, there was something in his eyes, something
in his eyes that really attracted me to him. It was almost like I could
see into his soul. I could just tell that he was a tender, kind person,
somebody that I’d like to get to know a little bit better, a man of integrity.
SCOTT ROSS (reporting): In his book, Against All Odds, Chuck candidly shares
how he and Gena were both brought back to a committed relationship with
Christ while living together before they married. They speak openly about
the "sin" they were in -- a rare word these days-- and how their pastor
led them to repentance. It was the turning point in their lives and relationship.
GENA NORRIS: I committed my life to Christ at the age of 26. Actually our
backgrounds are very similar because I was raised in a Baptist upbringing
and I loved Jesus with all my heart, but I completely drifted. Then at the
age of 26, I had a really radical conversion. I don’t know how to explain
it any other way. I was just so excited
SCOTT ROSS: Yet, and you guys bring this up in the book, you moved in together
and cohabitated.
GENA NORRIS: We did things that were definitely wrong. When you have the
Holy Spirit reigning inside of you, you can’t run. You cannot run. I mean,
there’s always that conviction
SCOTT ROSS: Did you talk about that?
CHUCK NORRIS: Yes.
GENA NORRIS: We did.
SCOTT ROSS: Did you say, 'We’re violating our own principles and standards
and ethics'?
GENA NORRIS: We did. And what kind of an example are we setting for our
children or our grandchildren and to other people who maybe are thinking
about a walk with the Lord but they’re like, 'If they’re doing this, then
how can it be real'? All those sort of things start really weighing on you.
CHUCK NORRIS: When I wrote this book, I wanted to pour my soul out. I wanted
people to know.
GENA NORRIS: Be completely transparent.
CHUCK NORRIS: I didn’t want to hide things in this book. There are a lot
of things in the book, a lot of mistakes I made in my life that come out
in this book.
SCOTT ROSS: The truth will set you free. Chuck and Gena Norris
SCOTT ROSS (reporting): In Christ, Chuck and Gena began a new life together.
Before long, they had company. Twins Dakota and Danilee graced the Norris
household with special joy.
SCOTT ROSS: When you look back, I mean, the shy kid, the drunken father,
and the failures of life, you’ve got to be dumbfounded by some of this.
GENA NORRIS: We’re thankful.
CHUCK NORRIS: It’s amazing because people come up to me and say, 'Chuck,
you’re the luckiest guy in the world to be a world karate champion and a
movie and TV star.' When they say this to me, I kind of smile because luck
had nothing to do with it; God had everything to do with it.
Here's a great article on Chuck Norris
( from CompleteMartialArts.com)
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10, 1940) is an American martial artist,
action star, Hollywood actor, and recently, an internet phenomenon. A native
of Ryan, Oklahoma, Norris has two younger brothers, Wieland and Aaron Norris,
the latter of whom is a Hollywood producer. Norris was born to an alcoholic
father, half Irish and half Cherokee. Norris's mother is also half Irish
and half Cherokee. Norris is very proud of his Native American heritage,
and frequently referred to his origins on his hit show Walker, Texas Ranger.
When Norris was ten, his parents divorced and he later relocated to Prairie
Village, Kansas and then Torrance, California with his mother and brothers.
Norris describes his childhood as downbeat. He was non-athletic, shy, and
scholastically mediocre. Other children taunted him about his mixed ethnicity,
and Norris daydreamed about beating up his tormentors. Norris mentioned
in his autobiography that his father had a very serious problem with drinking
and "wasn't there" a lot for him growing up. Norris admitted that he loved
his father but did not like him. However, he professed that he only felt
pity for the man because "that was just how he was, and he missed so much."
Chuck Norris finished high school and soon married his girlfriend, Diane
Holechek. In 1958 Norris joined the United States Air Force as a Air Policeman
and was sent to Osan Air Base, South Korea. It was in South Korea that Norris
acquired the nickname Chuck and began his training in Tang Soo Do, an interest
that would lead to black belts in that art, as well as Tae Kwon Do, and
Shito ryu Karate, and a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; and the founding
of the Chun Kuk Do ("Universal Way") form and the education associations
United Fighting Arts Federation and "KickStart", formerly "Kick Drugs Out
of America", a middle school– and high school–based program intended to
give at-risk children a focus point in life through the martial arts. When
he returned to the United States he continued to act as an AP at March Air
Force Base California. Norris was discharged in August of 1962. He worked
for the Northrop Corporation and opened a chain of karate schools, which
Chad McQueen, Steve McQueen's son, attended. Chuck made history in 1997
when he was the first Westerner in the documented history of Taekwondo to
be given the rank of 8th Degree Black Belt Grand Master. On July 1, 2000
he was presented the Golden Lifetime Achievement Award by the World Karate
Union Hall of Fame. Currently, Norris lives in Dallas and owns a ranch between
Navasota, Texas and Anderson, Texas. He works for KickStart, which is located
in Dallas and Houston. Chuck's entrance into tournament karate began on
a losing note. He was defeated in his first two tournaments, dropping decisions
to Joe Lewis and Allan Steen. However, by 1967, Norris began to demonstrate
his skill and scored victories over the likes of Joe Lewis, Skipper Mullins,
Arnold Urquidez, Victor Moore, Ron Marchini, and Steve Sanders. In early
1968, Chuck suffered the fifth and last loss of his career, losing an upset
decision to Louis Delgado. However, on November 24, 1968, Chuck avenged
his defeat to Delgado and in the process won the Professional Middleweight
Karate champion (non-contact) title, which he held for six consecutive years.
In 1969, he won Karate's triple crown for the most tournament wins of the
year, and the fighter of the year award by Black Belt Magazine. It was also
in 1969 that Norris made his acting debut, in the Dean Martin movie The
Wrecking Crew. In 1970, his younger brother Weiland was killed in Vietnam.
Norris later dedicated his Missing in Action films to his brother's memory.
At a martial arts demonstration in Long Beach, Norris met the soon-to-be
famous martial artist Bruce Lee. In 1972, he acted as Bruce Lee's nemesis
in the movie Way of the Dragon (also known as Return of the Dragon), which
is widely credited with launching his way into stardom. In Asia, he is still
known primarily for this role. In 1974, McQueen encouraged him to begin
acting classes at MGM. Chuck Norris retired with a karate record of 65–5,
having avenged all of his defeats. Norris' first starring role was 1977's
Breaker! Breaker!, and subsequent films such as The Octagon (1980), An Eye
for an Eye (1981), and Lone Wolf McQuade proved his increasing box office
bankability. In 1984, Norris starred in Missing in Action, the first of
a series of POW rescue fantasies produced by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan
and Yoram Globus and released under their Cannon Films banner. Also in that
year, he was offered the part of the sensei of the Kobra Kai dojo in the
movie The Karate Kid, but declined the part. He reportedly did not want
to take part in depicting martial artists in an unfavorable light. However,
Norris disputes this story. On a February 9, 2006 episode of Adam Corolla's
radio show, Norris said that he was never offered the role. Norris noted
that he was already playing leading roles by the time The Karate Kid was
in production. Over the next four years, Norris became Cannon's most prominent
star, appearing in eight films, including Code of Silence, The Delta Force,
and Firewalker, in which he co-starred with Academy Award winner Louis Gossett,
Jr.. In 1986, he was involved in the production of the Ruby Spears cartoon
Karate Kommandos. Blackbelt Magazine's 1968 Karate Player of the Year Blackbelt
Magazine's 1975 Karate Instructor of the Year Blackbelt Magazine's 1977
Man of the Year Blackbelt Magazine's 1979 Fighting Star Editor's Award