Martin Kove

Martin Kove (born 1945/1946[1]) is an American actor and martial artist best known for The Karate Kid (1984), in which he played John Kreese, the head teacher of the Cobra Kai karate dojo. He reprised the role in two sequels, The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Karate Kid Part III (1989) as well as the 2018 television sequel series Cobra Kai. He also appeared as Nero the Hero in Death Race 2000 (1975), and afterward as Clem in White Line Fever (1975). He appeared in the TV series Cagney and Lacey (1981) portraying Police Detective Victor Isbecki, and afterward appeared in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).

Martin Kove
Kove at the Louisville Supercon in 2018
Born	1945/1946 (age 74–75) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, martial artist
Years active	1971–present
Children	2

Early life

Kove was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a Jewish American family.[2]

Career

Kove appeared as Cully in Gentle Ben (also known as Terror on the Mountain), Animal Planet, 2002, and Gentle Ben 2: Danger on the Mountain (also known as Black Gold), Animal Planet, 2003. He was cast as George Baker in the short-lived CBS series Code R (1977) about the emergency services (fire, police, and ocean rescue) in the California Channel Islands. His co-stars were James Houghton, Tom Simcox, and Joan Freeman.

He also starred in the short-lived science fiction series Hard Time on Planet Earth and made guest appearances on several television programs including Gunsmoke, Three for the Road, Kojak, Quincy, M. E., The Incredible Hulk, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, The Rockford Files, The Streets of San Francisco, and Black Scorpion.

Kove was a cast member on the 1982–1988 CBS television series Cagney & Lacey as Detective Victor Isbecki.

Kove appeared in the 1984 hit film The Karate Kid as Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese. After playing a traitorous helicopter pilot in the 1985 film Rambo: First Blood Part II, he appeared again as Kreese in the 1986 sequel The Karate Kid Part II (using footage cut from the first film) and the 1989 sequel The Karate Kid Part III. He studied Okinawa-te Karate under prominent black belt Gordon Doversola Shihan.[3][4][5]

Kove appeared in Kung Fu: The Legend Continues as the Shadow Assassin in Episode 3, Season 1, "Shadow Assassin", which aired on 3 February 1993, and in Episode 23, Season 2, which aired on January 26, 1994.

Kove in 2015

He appeared in the 2007 music video for the song "Sweep the Leg" by No More Kings as a caricature of himself and John Kreese from The Karate Kid.[6][7] He appeared on Tosh.0 as his character from The Karate Kid, John Kreese, where he spoofed the final fight on the "Board Breaker Web Redemption". At the end of the skit, Daniel Tosh, dressed as Mr. Miyagi, honks Kove's nose, a reference to Mr. Miyagi's action in the scene at the beginning of The Karate Kid, Part II.

In 2017, Kove parodied his Karate Kid character in the Season 4, Episode 17 episode of The Goldbergs.

In 2018, Kove returned to the character of John Kreese for the YouTube Premium web series, Cobra Kai, a sequel series of the Karate Kid franchise set 34 years after the 1984 film. The series debuted on May 2, 2018, and was met with critical success. The show was renewed for a second season, which was published on April 24, 2019. In June 2020, the series was purchased by Netflix which would produce a third season. Several months later in October 2020 a fourth season was renewed in advance.[8]

In 2019, Kove again parodied his Karate Kid character in an ad for QuickBooks, in which a kinder, gentler Kreese runs a "Koala Kai" dojo of preteen students who are encouraged to "sweep the leg" and to show "more mercy".[9]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1971	Little Murders		Uncredited
1971	Women in Revolt	Marty
1972	Savages	Archie
1972	The Last House on the Left	Deputy
1973	Cops and Robbers	Ambulance Attendant
1975	The Wild Party	Editor
1975	Capone	Pete Gusenberg
1975	Death Race 2000	Nero the Hero
1975	White Line Fever	Clem
1976	The Four Deuces	Smokey Ross
1977	The White Buffalo	Jack McCall
1979	Seven	Skip
1982	Blood Tide	Neil Grice
1984	The Karate Kid	Sensei John Kreese
1985	Rambo: First Blood Part II	Michael Reed Ericson
1986	The Karate Kid Part II	Sensei John Kreese
1987	Steele Justice	John Steele
1989	The Karate Kid Part III	Sensei John Kreese
1991	White Light	Sean Craig
1992	Project Shadowchaser	Desilva	Direct-to-video
1992	Shootfighter: Fight to the Death	Mr. Lee
1994	Wyatt Earp	Ed Ross
1994	Frank and Jesse	Uncredited
1994	Future Shock	Dr. Langdon
1996	Timelock	Admiral Danny Teegs
1996	Mercenary	Phoenix
1998	Joseph's Gift	Thompsonn
2000	Nowhere Land	Hank
2002	Crocodile 2: Death Swamp	Roland
2002	Curse of the Forty-Niner	Caleb
2004	Illusion Infinity	Taxi Driver
2005	Glass Trap	Corrigan
2005	Miracle at Sage Street	Jess
2006	Max Havoc: Ring of Fire	Lt. Reynolds
2007	The Dead Sleep Easy	Bob Depugh
2008	Chinaman's Chance: America's Other Slaves	Sheriff Jones
2009	Middle Men	US Senator
2011	Savage	Jack Lund
2011	The Life Zone	Randy Graves
2014	Falcon Song	Caspian
2014	Eternity: The Movie	Barry Goldfield, Sr.
2014	Tapped Out	Principal Vanhorne
2014	The Extendables	Aye Lewis	[10]
2015	The Dog Who Saved Summer	Vernon
2016	Traded	Cavendish
2016	Jokers Wild	Graham Palace
2017	Bring Me A Dream	Sheriff Jack Miller
2018	Paint It Red	Scabs
2019	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood	Sheriff on Bounty Law
2019	VFW	Lou Clayton

Television

Year	Title	Role	Episode(s)
1974	Gunsmoke	Guthrie	"In Performance of Duty"
1975	Three for the Road		"The Rip-off"
1976	Kojak	Burl Stole	"Law Dance"
1976	The Streets of San Francisco	Willis Hines	"The Drop"
1977	The Rockford Files	Harry Smick	"Dirty Money, Black Light"
1977	Code R	George Baker	12 episodes
1977	The San Pedro Beach Bums	Denny Evans	"The Shortest Yard"
1977–1978	We've Got Each Other	Ken Redford	5 episodes
1978	The Incredible Hulk	Henry "Rocky" Welsh	"Final Round"
1978–1979	Barnaby Jones	Greg Saunders, Stan Benson	2 episodes
1979	Quincy, M.E.
1978	Starsky and Hutch	Jimmy	“Birds of a Feather”;
1979	CHiPs	Joe Kirby	"The Death Challenge"; "Hot Wheels"
1980-1981	The Edge of Night	Romeo Slade	16 episodes
1982	Cry for the Strangers	Jeff	Television film
1982–1988	Cagney & Lacey	Victor Isbecki	113 episodes
1985	Murder, She Wrote	Dr. Ellison	"Armed Response"
1985	The Twilight Zone	Joe	"Opening Day"
1989	Hard Time on Planet Earth	Jess	13 episodes
1993	Renegade	Mitch Raines / Goliath	2 episodes
1993–1994	Kung Fu: The Legend Continues	Chi'Ru Master	2 episodes
1994	Cagney & Lacey: The Return	Victor Isbecki	Television film
1995	Walker, Texas Ranger	Fred Kimble	"Flashback"
1995	Hercules: The Legendary Journeys	Demetrius	"The Mother of All Monsters"
1998–1999	Diagnosis: Murder	Captain Walter Newman	3 episodes
2001	Under Heavy Fire	Father Brazinski	Television film
2001	Black Scorpion	James Ames/Firearm	"Armed and Dangerous"
2003	Hard Ground	Floyd	Television film
2003	Barbarian	Munkar	Television film
2009	War Wolves	Malick	Television film
2011	Tosh.0	John Kreese	"Broad Breaker"
2015	Criminal Minds	John Folkmore	"Scream"
2017	The Goldbergs	Master John	"The Kara-Te Kid"
2018–present	Cobra Kai	John Kreese	(Guest; season 1), (Main; Season 2-present)

See also

•  Biography portal

References

1. Rahman, Abid (August 28, 2020). "'Cobra Kai' Star Martin Kove On Returning to Play Iconic Character". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 9, 2020. ...the 74-year-old [as of August 2020]
2. Tucker, Ernest (May 15, 1987). "'Kosher cowboy' bucks heavy image". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 71. Retrieved January 11, 2015. (subscription required)
3. Curran, Brad (June 11, 2014). "Interview with Martin Kove". Kung-fu Kingdom. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
4. "Star of Karate Kid talks with Ballinger Publishing". Ballinger Publishing. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
5. Angelus, Jerold (June 27, 2011). Martin Kove. Duct Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 9786136779522. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
6. Frye, Cory (March 10, 2018). "Of Being and Johnny Lawrence (Sweep the Leg)". Albany Democrat-Herald. Corvallis Gazette-Times. Retrieved October 21, 2018.
7. Strauss, Chris (October 9, 2014). "'Karate Kid' villain Billy Zabka is still best friends with the Cobra Kais". USA Today. Retrieved October 21, 2018.
8. "'Cobra Kai' Gets Early Season 4 Renewal at Netflix | Hollywood Reporter". www.hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2fo1jnbk8
10. THE EXTENDABLES Trailer on YouTube

Further reading

• Voisin, Scott, Character Kings: Hollywood's Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting. BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59393-342-5.

External links

• Martin Kove at IMDb