Richard Norton is an Australian martial artist, action film star, stuntman, stunt/fight coordinator or fight choreographer, and martial arts trainer. After high school, Norton worked as a bodyguard in the entertainment business before pursuing an acting career. He has attained a 9th Degree in Zen Do Kai, Australia. His first screen appearance was in the 1980 Chuck Norris film The Octagon, and he has worked on over 80 feature films and television programs.
Norton is known for his appearances in Hong Kong action films. Norton's Hong Kong credits include The Magic Crystal, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars, City Hunter,, Millionaire's Express, and Mr. Nice Guy. A signature catchphrase of Norton's characters is "Painful?", usually asked after striking a decisive blow. The most comical example is in Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars, where he faces Sammo Hung and in the movie Millionaire's Express against Yasuaki Kurata. Over his career, Norton has faced off with many top martial arts action stars, including Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yasuaki Kurata, Benny "the Jet" Urquidez, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, and Cynthia Rothrock. Norton served as fight coordinator on the 2007 film The Condemned, doubling for Jones. He also starred in a contemporary drama, Under the Red Moon. In August 2010, Norton appeared at Berlin Movie Con, a convention of martial arts where he was joined by ten other stars of Martial arts cinema in a two-day show. It was staged in the Universal hall in Berlin Germany. Among his fellow stars were Cynthia Rothrock, Don "The Dragon" Wilson and Conan Lee.
– legendary gladiator Hilarus and 'personal trainer' of sorts, to Crassus.
Martial arts experience
Norton has trained in many aspects of the martial arts in his 55 years of training, including Judo, Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Aikido, Thai boxing and several Japanese weapons systems. He used this experience to co-create the hybrid martial art Zen Do Kai with fellow security guard Bob Jones. He has a 5th-Degree Shihan rank Black Belt in Goju Ryu, 8th-Degree Masters rank in Chun Kuk Do, 5th-Degree Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a 9th-degree Black Belt in Zen Do Kai Karate. He has trained extensively with such Martial Arts legends as Tino Ceberano, Tadashi Yamashita, Fumio Demura, Bill 'Superfoot' Wallace, Pete "Sugar Foot" Cunningham, Jean-Jacques Machado and Chuck Norris. Norton is in constant demand for seminars all over the world, covering such topics as street defense, martial arts weapons drills, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and mixed martial arts. His 15 years experience as a personal body guard for some of Rock and Roll's greats finds Norton in particular demand for teaching the realities of real life street defense, focusing on aspects such as adrenal dump, stress control and pre-emptive strikes. In September 2007, Norton released a two-disc DVD set on Black Belt Digital Video called Black Belt training Complexes. The DVDs show Norton executing some very fast and accurate examples of his skill, and some additional seminar footage is also included. They focus on the development of explosive speed, power and continuity of movement, with in depth explanation of the principles. Norton became the fight coordinator on Walker, Texas Ranger in 1993- he was a minor character in several episodes, and had a starring role as villainous businessman Frank Scanlon in The Avenging Angel; he was in the two-part finale The Final Show/Down as Jonas Graves- part of Emile Lavocat 's criminal gang. Fighting Stars Magazine ranked Norton's climactic fight with Chuck Norris in The Octagon as #13 on its list of the 25 greatest fight scenes of all time
