Good Guys Wear Black (1978)

1978 film by Ted Post

Released

1978

Country

United States

Language

English

Genre

Martial arts film

Director

Ted Post

Producer

Chuck Norris

Music

Craig Safan

Starring

Chuck Norris, Anne Archer, Soon-Tek Oh, Dana Andrews, James Franciscus, Lloyd Haynes, Jim Backus, Aaron Norris

Running time

92 minutes

Distributor

American Cinema Releasing, Netflix

Set in

Los Angeles, Paris

Good Guys Wear Black is a 1978 American action thriller film directed by Ted Post, and starring Chuck Norris. This was the second film to feature Norris as the star, following Breaker! Breaker! (1977). However, this is the one that Norris considered his "breakthrough". The film co-stars Anne Archer, Lloyd Haynes, Dana Andrews, Jim Backus and James Franciscus.

Following years of kung fu film imports from Hong Kong action cinema during the 1970s, most notably Bruce Lee films followed by Bruceploitation flicks, Good Guys Wear Black launched Chuck Norris as the first successful homegrown American martial arts star, having previously been best known for his film debut as a villain in Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon (1972). Good Guys Wear Black distinguished itself from earlier martial arts films with its distinctly American setting, characters, themes, and politics, a formula which Norris continued with the similarly successful Force of One (1979). The film featured a first screen appearance by Norris' brother Aaron Norris and the final appearance of Lloyd Haynes.

External links

• Wikipedia
• IMDb
• TMDb
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q647814 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.