Chuck Norris Won the Eighties Fair and Square

By the early 2000s, Chuck Norris had become a punchline. The star’s hit CBS TV show, Walker, Texas Ranger , was cancelled in 2001, and a few years later, ChuckNorrisFacts.com went live, launched by Brown University student and future New York Times bestselling author Ian Spector. The site was a pre-social media viral sensation based on a single premise: Norris’ indestructible tough-guy act was a joke, each “fact” an absurd bon mot: “Chuck Norris drinks napalm to fight his heartburn.” “Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer.

Too bad he never cries.” Here’s a personal favorite: “Chuck Norris doesn’t cheat death. He wins fair and square.” I thought about that now-ancient internet zinger the moment I got the notification that Chuck Norris, martial-arts legend and action-movie icon, was dead at 86. To understand the arc of Norris’ nearly 50-year career, first, look to its lowest point. Then, trace your finger to its peak, which, to me, was his starring role as smoldering special forces operative Scott McCoy in the 1986 action movie The Delta Force , co-starring a frail-looking but grizzled and...