The big-screen action hero of Lone Wolf McQuade, Missing in Action, The Delta Force and many more has left us after a sudden illness and hospitalization in Hawaii. He was 86.

Chuck Norris, the martial arts champion turned Hollywood action legend, died Thursday in Hawaii after being hospitalized. He was 86. His family announced the news in a statement, asking that the specific circumstances remain private, but noting that he was surrounded by loved ones and at peace.

“He lived his life with faith, purpose, and an unwavering commitment to the people he loved,” the statement read. “While our hearts are broken, we are deeply grateful for the life he lived.” The family also extended thanks to his global fanbase, noting that to Chuck, fans weren’t just fans — they were friends.”

Unlike a lot of Hollywood tough guys, Norris earned his reputation honestly. He held black belts in multiple disciplines including karate, Tang Soo Do, and taekwondo, and trained with Bruce Lee — even squaring off against him onscreen in The Way of the Dragon (1972). It was Steve McQueen, one of his private karate students, who encouraged him to pursue acting.

His big break came with Lone Wolf McQuade (1983), a Sergio Leone-flavored Western in which he played a loner Texas Ranger going up against an arms dealer played by David Carradine. It was exactly the kind of role Norris would perfect over the next decade — quiet, principled, and willing to put a boot through a wall if the situation called for it.

He signed with the Cannon Group shortly after and proceeded to print money for the scrappy mini-studio. Missing in Action (1984), in which he played a former POW who goes back to Vietnam to rescue captured soldiers, got roughed up by critics and embraced by audiences — spawning two follow-ups. Norris took the critical beatings in stride. He liked to quote McQueen on the subject: “the critics can say whatever they want, but if people show up to your movies, you keep working.”

They kept showing up. Code of Silence, Invasion U.S.A., Firewalker, and The Delta Force all followed in quick succession through the mid-to-late 1980s. Norris had become shorthand for a certain kind of American action movie — lean, square-jawed, and unapologetically patriotic.

His longest-running legacy arrived with Walker, Texas Ranger, which debuted on CBS in April 1993 and ran for nine seasons and roughly 200 episodes, plus a 2005 TV movie. The show had the feel of a classic Saturday night Western — deliberate, moral, and not in a hurry to apologize for it. It was Gunsmoke with roundhouse kicks.

Chuck Norris was the rare case of a pop culture legend who actually lived up to the myth. Godspeed, Ranger.