Chuck Norris, martial arts legend and action-film star, had South Bay ties – Daily Breeze

Carlos Ray “Chuck” Norris, the martial-arts master turned action icon who died Wednesday in Hawaii, had strong ties to the South Bay, launching his show-business career on the wave of martial arts championships and a half-dozen popular karate studios.

Chuck Norris graduated North High School in Torrance in 1958. (Photo courtesy of North High School)

The Oklahoma native, 86, was one of the top popcorn-flick stars of the 1970s and 1980s — including “The Way of the Dragon” with Bruce Lee,  “Missing in Action” and “Good Guys Wear Black” — and then transitioning to television with a nine-year run on CBS’ “Walker, Texas Ranger” in the 1990s.

But the North High School Class of 1958 graduate also made his mark in the South Bay with a string of karate studios, six in total, with the first one opening in Torrance in 1962.

Norris first moved to Gardena with his family when he was 12 years old. They later moved to Torrance.

His father, Ray Dee Norris, was reportedly an alcoholic and abandoned his three children and wife Wilma Norris, the action star has said in media reports. That left Carlos Norris, the oldest, to help his mother.

Norris was a member of the Torrance high school’s first graduating class. Though not a star athlete, the introverted Norris participated in North’s gymnastics program and played halfback for the school football team.

“I played some football, but I also spent a lot of time on the bench. I was never really athletic until I was in the service in Korea,” Norris told the Associated Press.

Norris met his first wife, Dianne Kay Holocheck, at North High and they married in Torrance in 1958. They had two sons during their 30-year marriage before divorcing.

Norris, still known as Carlos, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after graduating from North in 1958.

During boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, a Hispanic fellow recruit gave Norris the name “Chuck,” because Carlos is Charles in Spanish.

According to the “Together We Serve” website, Norris served in the U.S. Air Force from 1958 to 1962, and started studying Tang Soo Do while serving in Korea and preparing for a law-enforcement career.

“In 1961, Norris was named the ‘All Air Force Champion’ in the Lightweight Division for martial arts,” according to the website. “This was a major achievement, and it helped to solidify Norris’ reputation as one of the top martial artists in the military.”

After being honorably discharged in August 1962 with the rank of airman first class, he applied to become a Torrance police officer.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Norris, who was a first-degree black belt in Tang Soo Do and a third-degree brown belt in judo, worked as a file clerk for the defense contractor Northrop Corp. in the South Bay while moonlighting as a karate instructor.

While on the Torrance Police Department waiting list, Norris taught lessons in his mom’s backyard, then took out a loan to open his first karate school in Torrance, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  He also became a top performer in the world of martial arts, racking up a record of 65-5 in competitions.

He opened Chuck Norris Karate Studios at 22543 Hawthorne Blvd., on the northwest corner of Hawthorne and 226th Street. He built his business with personal appearances and karate demonstrations at civic events, service-club meetings and local schools.

Teaching Tang Soo Do at first, Norris evolved his own system to create Chun Kuk Do (“The Universal Way”) in the 1970s, which he branded as the Chuck Norris System in the 1990s.

While his first studio thrived, he won his first world middleweight title in 1969, winning six in total, and that same year moved to Rolling Hills Estates. Norris lived there for 17 years before moving to Orange County in 1986.

By November 1970, Norris had built the chain of karate studios to six, including the first one in Torrance, two in Redondo Beach as well as locations in Sherman Oaks, Lakewood and Granada Hills.

The Chuck Norris Karate School got an onscreen credit in the 1975 action move “Dolemite,” starring Rudy Ray Moore.

As it turned out, Hollywood stars loved the charming, soft-spoken Norris. He was a popular instructor for celebrities and gave private lessons to such stars as Bob Barker (who broke a couple of his ribs during one workout, according to The Hollywood Reporter), Priscilla Presley and Steve McQueen.

McQueen reportedly encouraged him to enter acting, which led to a bit part in “The Wrecking Crew,” starring Dean Martin, in 1968.

Norris’ film career took when he squared off against the legendary Bruce Lee in “The Way of the Dragon” in 1972. Norris died onscreen — in Rome’s fabled Colosseum — but his film career was born. The low-budget film, made for $130,000, earned $130 million internationally.

Many other tough guy film roles followed including “Breaker! Breaker!,” “Lone Wolf McQuade,” “Missing in Action,” “Invasion U.S.A.,” “The Delta Force,” and many more, before he landed the hit CBS show “Walker, Texas Ranger,” from 1993 to 2001.

Norris, meanwhile, lived for years in Orange County and owned a restaurant there.

Norris, already a box-office stalwart, purchased Woody’s Wharf in Newport Beach after its namesake owner sold it in the 1980s. More precisely, the late actor bought the waterfront bar and restaurant for his then-wife, Dianne. When she expressed interest in the restaurant business, Norris rewarded her with a $600,000 purchase: Woody’s Wharf, he said in a 1996 interview with the New York Times.

The actor helped rejuvenate the Newport Peninsula spot’s popularity, even drawing in a then-unknown Belgian martial artist  who would later become an action star in his own right, Jean-Claude Van Damme, who reportedly worked the door as a bouncer.

Even after Norris was no longer attached to Woody’s Wharf, his name still packed a punch. In 2013, when the restaurant went before the city’s Planning Commission to obtain a dancing permit, which was previously denied, his association was said to have carried weight. “If Chuck Norris used to own the place, I have to support it,” said former commissioner Kory Kramer in 2015.

In honor of the late actor, Woody’s Wharf will name its waterfront patio the “Chuck Norris patio.” (The patio did not exist before his ownership).

The restaurant will also introduce the Chuck Norris Salmon Bowl, which according to the current co-owner, will be “based on some of Chuck Norris’s favorite foods.”

And at the bar, Woody’s will offer the Chuck Norris Roundhouse Shot.

In the 1980s, Norris owned a private, rustic-style estate in North Tustin. The two-acre property, designed by architect Jack Selman, featured a main house, a guest house and a lake stocked with more than 100 koi fish.

Norris sold the property to pop singer Tiffany in 2016.

Staff writer Brock Keeling and columnist Sam Gnerre,, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report.