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Chuck Norris, who channeled his skills as a martial arts black belt into a durable acting career that left film critics largely unimpressed but delighted millions of fans savoring his good-guy triumphs and fortune-cookie musings, died Thursday. He was 86.

His death was announced by his family through his official Instagram account, but no further details were immediately available. He was hospitalized earlier that day in 91Ö±²¥ after experiencing a medical emergency, the family said.

In most of his films and in “Walker, Texas Ranger,” a CBS television series that ran from 1993 to 2001, Norris played a warrior who comes to the rescue not with words or guns but rather with spinning back kicks and other techniques that had made him a leading martial arts practitioner. His most fertile period on screen stretched from the late 1970s to the early 2000s with action thrillers such as “Good Guys Wear Black” (1978), “An Eye for an Eye” (1981), “Lone Wolf McQuade” (1983), “Code of Silence” (1985), “Invasion U.S.A.” (1985), “The Delta Force” (1986), “Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection” (1990) and three “Missing in Action” offerings in the 1980s that gave him a chance to rescue Americans held captive in Vietnam long after the war had ended.

Norris, whose beard became part of his signature look, was an action hero in a class with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charles Bronson. He appealed to millions who enjoyed seeing America win, whether that meant rescuing captive GI’s in Vietnam, saving the country from terrorists in “Invasion U.S.A.” or defeating skyjackers and drug kingpins in the “Delta Force” series.

Carlos Ray Norris was born March 10, 1940, in Ryan, Oklahoma, the oldest of three sons of Ray Norris, a bus and truck driver, and Wilma (Scarberry) Norris, who managed the home. He grew up in Wilson, Oklahoma, and later Torrance, California, south of Los Angeles.

After his parents divorced in 1956, his mother remarried. Later, Norris recalled his father’s alcoholism and absenteeism, and said he had regarded Hollywood Western stars like John Wayne and James Stewart as “surrogate fathers.”

After his graduation in 1958 from North High School in Torrance, he enlisted in the Air Force and became a military police officer. The same year, at 18, he married Dianne Holechek, a schoolmate. They divorced in 1989. Nine years later, Norris married Gena O’Kelley, a former model.

She survives him, along with two sons from his first marriage, Mike and Eric Norris; two children from his second marriage, Danilee and Dakota Norris; a daughter from another relationship, Dianna Di Ciolli, who goes by Dina Norris; his brother Aaron; and many grandchildren. Norris’ brother Wieland died in combat in Vietnam in 1970.

This article originally appeared in .

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