GQ magazine’s cover stars are usually all cut from the same Hollywood A-list cloth. But, the star of its latest American issue marks a radical departure for the magazine, and provides one of the most extraordinary and life-affirming stories in its history.

Pic/Dan winters For GQ

In 1997, Richard Lee Norris, then aged 22, arrived home drunk and got into an argument with his mother. In the heat of the moment, he grabbed a shotgun, pointed it at his own face and told his mother he was going to shoot himself. The gun went off accidentally, shattering the lower half of Norris’s face. Miraculously, he survived, but lost his nose, jaw, teeth and most of his tongue.