Remember Chuck Norris memes but never watched his films? You're not alone

Chuck Norris, the 86-year-old martial artist and actor famous for roles in Walker, Texas Ranger and 1970s-80s action films, passed away Thursday at a hospital in Hawaii. While older generations remember him for his on-screen work alongside Bruce Lee and in Missing in Action, younger internet users primarily know him through the "Chuck Norris facts" meme phenomenon that emerged in the early 2000s. These viral jokes portrayed him as an impossibly powerful, superhuman figure and spread widely across early social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, becoming so ubiquitous that many millennials and Gen Z individuals recognize only the memes without knowing his actual film career.