WATCH: Remembering That Time Chuck Norris Took on Bruce Lee in One of Hollywood’s Most Legendary Fight Scenes

The passing of Chuck Norris has inspired fans to reminisce on what many consider to be one of the greatest fight scenes in cinematic history.

On Friday, Norris’s family announced that the legendary actor died the previous morning. In a statement posted on social media, the family said it was keeping the circumstances around his death “private,” but added that the 86-year-old “was surrounded by his family and was at peace.”

Originally starting out in Hollywood as a martial arts instructor, Norris went on to become one of the industry’s great action stars of the 20th century. Among his most iconic performances was his role in the 1972 Bruce Lee-led film The Way of the Dragon. Norris, in his debut acting role, played the villain, Colt. Throughout the nine-minute scene, Lee and Norris exchanged a number of meaningful strikes on one another. The back-and-forth melee finally concluded with Lee’s character choking out Norris’s.

As Norris noted in a 1995 interview with Conan O’Brien, most of Lee’s on-screen fights were one-sided affairs. Because Lee had so much respect for Norris, however, he allowed the fight to be more even. The conversation continued:

NORRIS: I’d seen his first two movies. I said, “The guys you fight don’t even have a chance. I mean, they don’t even touch you, you know?” And he said, “No, no, we’ll make this a seesaw battle,” and so, we made the fight back-and-forth and it became a classic.

O’BRIEN: That was unusual at the time because in that fight scene, you knock him down a few times and it’s pretty close, and he didn’t allow that, did he?”

NORRIS: No, I was the only one to ever really do that fighting, but again, you know, he respected me because of my ability as a world champion at the time.

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