Cinema: And Now, a Wham-Bam Superstar: Chuck Norris

Martial Artist Chuck Norris is the strong, silent, successful type

The new Burt Reynolds shoot-'em-up, Stick, is a commercial and cinematic clunker. Charles Bronson has not had a big U.S. box-office success in years. Steve McQueen is long dead. Meanwhile Code of Silence, Chuck Norris' third movie in eight months, sold more tickets in its opening week than any other movie in the country. In his strictly wham-bam B-movie genre, Norris, a former karate champion, has become the undisputed superstar. No longer a cult figure but still well this side of A-list famous, Norris and some of his Hollywood partisans figure his celebrity is analogous to that of Clint ( Eastwood....

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