Where is Chuck Norris now? Action star has become far-right columnist writing how to 'roundhouse kick Covid-19'
Who doesn’t know Chuck Norris? The 80-year-old American martial artist, actor, film producer, and screenwriter has dazzled audiences with his skills both in the dojo and on screen. His most popular roles include ‘Way of the Dragon’, ‘Breaker! Breaker!’, ‘Good Guys Wear Black’, ‘Lone Wolf McQuade’, ‘The Delta Force’, ‘The Hitman’, and many more. From 1993 to 2001, Norris also played Cordell Walker in the American action crime television series ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’. Thanks to The CW, we will see a reboot of the show. And while it may no longer star Norris, ‘Walker’ will star ‘Supernatural’ star, Jared Padalecki.
It is unlikely that Norris will make an appearance on the show. But one has to ask the question: Where is Chuck Norris now? And what is he doing? In 2012, Norris made his last Hollywood film -- ‘Expendables 2’ -- before announcing his retirement from acting. But even off-screen, he has been in the public eye.
A registered Republican, the author of ‘Black belt patriotism: How to reawaken America’, Norris has been active in his political support to Republican names. In fact, just before the Georgia run-off elections, Norris wrote in a column on WorldNetDaily, a far-right news website, “I believe political jiu-jitsu is what Georgians must use to assure that Democrats don't win the trifecta of the White House, House, and the Senate, and thus have a monopoly on everything they want and desire. In other words, Georgians need to assure the incumbent Republican senators, Perdue and Loeffler, are reelected so that they can leverage the Senate majority against a Washington Democrat stronghold.”
Norris’ conservative politics is not new. In 2017, he endorsed former Judge Roy Moore in the battle for the Alabama U.S. Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Moore, he said, “is the real deal: He’s tough, tested, and has a spine of steel… The Washington establishment knows they won’t be able to count on him, but Alabama voters can. Judge Moore has never backed down from standing for what is right, and that’s exactly what he’ll do in the U.S. Senate.”
In fact, his good-guy action hero image from his film days may not have altogether aged well. In 2019, he became the spokesperson for Glock, the gun company. “I’m honored to partner with this world-renowned brand,” Norris said in his own statement.
He further said, “The values that I have built my life and brand on -- tough, real, constant, and powerful -- are echoed in everything that Glock does and creates. Let me put it this way, if I ever decided to go into firearms, there would be no point -- I would just be recreating what Glock has already built. The only thing that would change is the name.” He was consequently slammed by fans for endorsing a gun brand, considering the increasing number of gun violence cases in the US.
2020 and 2021 saw Norris lay low. But he is still on and about, writing about how one can “roundhouse kick COVID-19”. He may no longer be the action hero he once was -- after all, he’s 80 -- he still is out there, no matter the number of fake news stories about the martial arts master dying!