Chuck Norris - A Famous Star of Action Films

Chuck Norris is an Executive Producer of "Walker, Texas Ranger" as well as the star. Norris is familiar to fans worldwide as the star of action films such as The Hitman (1991), The Delta Force (1986) and Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection (1990). He also starred in Missing in Action (1984) and its sequels, Firewalker (1986) and Sidekicks (1992). Norris was born Carlos Ray in Ryan, the eldest of three children, he helped his mother raise his two younger brothers in Torrance, CA, where his family moved when he was 12. Norris joined the Air Force after graduating from high school. During a stint in Korea, he began to study the Asian martial art of Tang Soo Do. After returning home, he worked for Northrop Aviation and moonlighted as a karate instructor. Two years later he was teaching full-time and running a number of martial-arts schools. His students included Steve McQueen, Priscilla Presley and the Osmonds. In 1968, he became the Professional World Middleweight Karate Champion, holding the title undefeated until he retired in 1974. He is a black belt in Tang Soo Do and Tae Kwan Do, both Korean fighting arts, and knows all forms of the martial arts. In 1969, he earned the Triple Crown for the highest number of tournament wins, and was named Fighter of the Year by "Black Belt" magazine. By the time he was 34; Norris had established 32 karate schools and had been a champion for six years. In 1996, he became the first Westerner to be awarded an eighth-degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do.

Norris, who was urged to get into acting by his friend Steve McQueen, skillfully incorporates his martial-arts knowledge into his series and feature film projects, stressing action and technique over violence. He is the author of the books "The Secret of Inner Strength" and "The Secret Power Within - Zen Solutions to Real Problems". He works for many charities, including the Funds for Kids, Veterans Administration National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans, the United Way, Make-a-Wish Foundation and KickStart, a nonprofit organization he created to help battle drugs and violence in schools. He also starred in the television movie Bound by Honor (1993), broadcast on CBS. He lives on a ranch when not filming.

Chuck Norris's fight career lasted from 1964-1974. Norris started off by losing his first three tournaments but, by 1966, he was almost unbeatable. Among the numerous titles he won were The National Karate Championships (1966), All-Star Championships (1966), World Middleweight Karate Championship (1967), All-American Karate Championship (1967), Internationals (1968), World Professional Middleweight Karate Championship (defeating Louis Delgado on 24 November 1968), All-American Championship (1968), National Tournament of Champions (1968), American Tang Soo Championship, and the North American Karate Championship. Norris compiled a fight record of 65-5 with wins over champions Joe Lewis, Skipper Mullins, Arnold Urquidez, Ronald L. Marchini, Victor Moore, Louis Delgado, and Steve Sanders. Of the five men to beat Norris, three were Allen Steen, Joe Lewis, and Norris's last career defeat to Louis Delgado in 1968. Norris retired as undefeated Professional Full-Contact Middleweight Champion in 1974.

Click to find more about Martial Arts

Click to find more about Self Defense

The Rise Of Nollywood And Independently Produced Films

In most countries, we tend to be able to view movies that are produced by major companies such as those in Hollywood. The techniques, equipment and technology used by these companies are not only advanced, they are also very expensive. Cost is the main barrier that is preventing independent film producers from making their own movies.

However, in recent years, due to the evolution of technology, film producers have been able to achieve a break through. Using creative techniques, they are able to make use of inexpensive film production equipment such as digital video cams and computers to produce full length movies. In fact, this is happening at an amazing rate in an African nation known as Nigeria. Most people have heard of Hollywood and Bollywood. But have you heard of Nollywood?

Nollywood represents the film industry in Nigeria. It is unique and is vastly different from Hollywood. Hollywood focuses mostly on producing quality movies using sophisticated techniques. It can take many months or even years to produce a movie. Quality of such movies tend to be exceptional. But for Nigerian movies, the focus is a lot more on content. Since producers don't have access to deep pockets like Hollywood producers, they have to come up with ways and means to produce movies without sacrificing the quality of the films. They achieve this by emphasizing on high quality content. Therefore, in many Nollywood films, the story lines are often very strong. They are not wildly imaginative, but are easily accepted by the Nigerian population. This is because most of the content focuses on story lines that are about the African people. They can identify with the plots and tend to enjoy local movies more. Using this clever strategy, Nollywood movies have been able to beat (outsell) Hollywood films.

Another part of the strategy involves producing movies in huge numbers. The rate of production is between a thousand to a couple of thousand each year. More and more film producers are joining the movie industry as they can now make movies with a relatively low budget. The great number of Nollywood films overwhelm all the other films. For this reason, other films find it hard to compete in this thriving film industry.

Nollywood movies are mostly produced by independent film makers and businessmen. The return is very attractive. A film takes just about a week to be completed and cost about US $20,000 to produce. Once completed, a film can sell over 150,000 units in a single day. With such attractive returns, many film producers try to make as many movies as they can that are within budget and can sell well. These films can be produced cheaply mainly because producers are making full use of inexpensive digital equipment.

View Nigerian Movies and Nigerian Videos.