In Memoriam: Richard Norton (1950-2025)
Actor and martial arts star Richard Norton reportedly passed away over the weekend, at the age of 75. His wife, Judy, took to social media over the weekend to share the news of Norton’s passing.
Norton grew up in Croydon in Melbourne, Australia and began studying martial arts at eleven years old. He expanded his syllabus studying various styles and even co-creating Zen Do Kai with Bob Jones, and worked as bodyguard and trainer to the stars including touring musicians and bands like ABBA, Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie.
By the 1980s, Norton took his craft well into entertainment industry, working under directors like Eric Karson (The Octagon), Robert Clouse (China O’Brien 1 & 2), Jackie Chan (City Hunter), Sammo Hung (Twinkle Twinke Lucky Stars), Sam Firstenberg (American Ninja), and many more, progressing later on as fight coordinator while maintaining smaller roles in recent years. Some of those titles of late among those covered by this site, included Phillip Rhee’s Underdog Kids, John Balazs’s Rage, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, and Cynthia Rothrock’s upcoming Western actioner, Black Creek.
I first caught Norton in the China O’Brien films in the nineties, before eventually catching some of his other stuff with Rothrock in films like Rage and Honor 1 & 2. It wouldn’t be until the early 2000s when Hong Kong cinema would become more prolific at our local video stores and in online kiosks. I did catch Norton’s reunion with Chan in Hung’s 1998 actioner, Mr. Nice Guy where he plays a mob boss hounding a chef who haphazardly becomes the new owner of an incriminating tape from a journalist.
I’ve still yet to nab my own copies of some of Norton’s other works like Magic Crystal and Millionaires’ Express. I remember spending months and months refreshing the old HKFlix website to see if those DVDs would still be available. Alas, no such luck, but I haven’t given up.
I definitely would have loved to see Norton in more going forward, particularly after seeing him throw down for a few beats in Adrian Castro’s Tiger Cop: Project A with actress and friend to the site, Maria Tran. The proximity was astounding seeing them on screen together, making Norton one of the more positively memorable presences on this site, as well as on the screen in my fandom and upbringing.
Our thoughts and best wishes go out the late actor’s friends and family.
Lead image: Richard Norton in “City Hunter” (1992), via Eureka Entertainment
