The Untold Truth Of Martin Kove

From "Cagney and Lacey" and the "Rambo" sequel to the first three chapters of "The Karate Kid," Martin Kove appeared in several of the '80s defining pop culture touchstones. But his career had become stuck in straight-to-DVD purgatory from the mid-'90s. For example, when former co-star Sylvester Stallone was leading an all-star team of macho men in "The Expendables," Kove was cameoing in a low-budget parody titled "The Extendables."

However, thanks to the unlikely TV reboot of the franchise that made car waxing the ultimate martial arts technique, Kove has recently enjoyed a second wind. Indeed, having reprised his role as merciless instructor John Kreese in YouTube original-turned-Netflix phenomenon "Cobra Kai," the actor has become a familiar fearsome face to a whole new generation. And both Quentin Tarantino and the producers of "Dancing with the Stars" have wanted a piece since.

From unlikely careers advisors and altercations with fans to celebrity disputes and gym routines, here's a look at Kove's untold truth.

Back in 1971, Martin Kove was in the midst of a career dilemma. As he shared in a 2021 interview with Smashing Interviews Magazine, he'd just been offered a spot with New York repertory theater Classic Stage Company at the same time he was studying at the School of the Arts at NYU. Unsure of whether to commit himself to the off-Broadway world or to continue his education, the fledgling actor decided to seek some advice from none other than Sean Connery.

Instead of turning to his university's career counselor, Kove approached the original James Bond on the set of "The Anderson Tapes" with his big inquiry. At the time, the former was working as the latter's stand-in, and the Scotsman's response proved to be invaluable. As Kove recalled to Smashing Interviews Magazine, "He said, 'Young man, if you can do "Antigone," you can do anything,' meaning if you can do the Greek classics, you can do anything. So he said to basically forget about school and go to work with the repertory company. That was his answer, which turned out great."

And their stand-in-ship would eventually blossom into a friendship. In a chat with Our Community Now, Kove shared that he and Connery "became tennis buddies" and real-deal pals. But he never told the acting legend just how much of an impact one of their earliest conversations had on him.

You'd probably expect most actors to distance themselves entirely from their most famous character if said character was a renowned sadist who threatened, harassed, and tormented their way to the top. But Martin Kove is more than happy to admit that having played the polar opposite of Pat Morita's kindly sensei Mr Miyagi for three "The Karate Kid" films. And now three series of its Netflix reboot, John Kreese has become part of his personality.

In a 2020 interview with Men's Health, the actor revealed that unlike every other role he's played, the Cobra Kai founder stays with him once the cameras have stopped rolling. And he can rise to the surface in the most innocuous of places, too. Indeed, heaven help any Dairy Queen manager who ever stands in his way. Kove said, "I've found myself, at times, wanting to go into an ice cream store and it's closed right in front of me, and I got there too late. And all of a sudden, this energy rises in my body and the stare that comes out of the eyes, and it just innately is there."

Even so, it sounds like the role hasn't totally taken over. Noting Kove "isn't really like Kreese at all," fellow "Cobra Kai" actor William Zabka told Variety, "Marty has a piece of Kreese in him that when it's amplified it's this monster Kreese. He'll admit it, offset sometimes in different situations, that character — he has to push him back down."

From David Carradine in "Kill Bill" to Pam Grier in "Jackie Brown" and, of course, John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction," Quentin Tarantino has a history of casting actors long considered past their heyday. And the motormouthed director did it again in 2019 when he offered Martin Kove a role in his revisionist 1960s tale "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." "The Karate Kid" star may have only got one line but he was still ecstatic just to be a part of the Oscar-winning picture, telling The Hollywood Reporter, "I open up the movie, and it's a Western, and I'm in heaven. I had the greatest time in the world just doing that scene with [Leonardo DiCaprio] and [Tarantino]."

This unlikely alliance began at a Directors Guild screening of "Inglourious Basterds" back in 2009 when, in front of a packed house, Tarantino revealed he'd been a big fan of 1993 flick "Firehawk," a movie Kove was both in and describes as "a piece of s***." The filmmaker later gave Kove his number but agonizingly the recipient found the handwriting so illegible that he couldn't phone it. The actor spent several years trying to get in contact with the hope of landing a part in "Django Unchained" and then "The Hateful Eight," joking that he was "driving [Tarantino] crazy," before finally getting a call from the man himself. 

"Yeah, so the rest is history," Kove said of the gig in Uproxx. "[Tarantino is] just a real gas."

Martin Kove may have appeared as John Kreese in the first three "The Karate Kid" films, reprised the role in contemporary spin-off "Cobra Kai" and been a regular of the fan convention circuit for the past 30 years. But behind closed doors, does he resent the fact that he'll always be associated with the same role a la Alan Rickman's jaded sci-fi icon in the brilliant satire "Galaxy Quest"?

Apparently not. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2020, he said he's immensely proud to be a part of such an enduring franchise. Rather modestly, Kove doesn't attribute its success to his performance, or indeed to any of his co-stars'. Instead, he feels that the original's screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen should take all the credit. Kove, who also believes that the 1984 original was a "religious experience" for many fans, explained, "Because how many other movies can boast five or six iconic lines, lines like: 'Sweep the leg.' 'No mercy.' 'Mercy is for the weak.' All that [from one movie]. 'Wax on, wax off.'"

He echoed this sentiment in a 2021 interview with Cowboys & Indians. When talking about the staying power of "The Karate Kid" and the quotable lines, he remarked, "If you think about the movies where certain lines are still quoted years and years later, things like, 'Play it again, Sam,' or, 'May the force be with you,' or, 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn' — the writing is what made those movies classics."

While appearing on podcast "WTF with Marc Maron" in 2013, Bill Hader recalled his pre-fame experiences as a chauffeur for Martin Kove. And from the sounds of it, the "Cagney and Lacey" star wasn't the easiest person to drive around.

Hader claimed that he was constantly berated by Kove and recounted one particular incident in which the actor offered to buy him a McDonald's milkshake, only to walk out of the fast food joint enjoying the creamy dessert beverage himself, a move he described as a "weird mind f***."

But when asked about such behavior by Uproxx several years later, Kove was adamant that the "Barry" star was telling porkies: "Total fabrication. Not quite clear why he spreads this story. It's quite uncharacteristic of me to indulge in such a level of being so inconsiderate. I don't remember him or the event. Maybe he drove me to a set one day, but I really don't remember him at all." However, proving that there's no hard feelings, Kove still wished Hader all the best.

Martin Kove may be a proud member of the "Cobra Kai" family, but there are several other entries in the actor's filmography that he has no mercy for. Indeed, in a 2019 interview with Uproxx, Kove freely admitted that his early years were dominated by pictures that were a means to an end. He described "Death Race 2000" as something he signed up for just to get a good credit, found Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left" "a little too violent," and initially hated the title of "The Karate Kid" for sounding too much like a Bruce Lee film.

Even when the latter's success resulted in more substantial roles, Kove was still hard to please. "All of a sudden I started doing films where I liked the part, but I didn't think the script was that great," he said in Uproxx. "But I took it because I was arrogant enough to think that I could embellish the film and make it better with a good performance. And nine out of 10 times, even if you're Anthony Hopkins, you work in a movie, even if you're the lead, if it's not very good, no one's going to see it." That explains why he was happy with just one line in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Or why, as he shared with A Word On Westerns, he had a change of heart and decided to do "Wyatt Earp" even though it was "a very small part."

Martin Kove has built his career on playing baddies. Alongside his most iconic villainous role, John Kreese in "The Karate Kid" and "Cobra Kai," he's also left audiences hissing and booing as backstabbing helicopter pilot Michael Reed Ericson in "Rambo II: First Blood," gunslinger Ed Ross in "Wyatt Earp," and contract killer Peter 'Goosey' Gusenberg in "Capone."

So it's a surprise to learn that Kove would much prefer to be the kind of screen presence that viewers actually root for. In 2021, he told Smashing Interviews Magazine, "I'd rather play a good guy. My son, Jesse, is handsome, gorgeous, tall and muscular. He likes to play bad guys, but he gets cast as a good guy. There are many people where it goes both ways. Most leading men like to play bad guys, and most bad guys never get a chance to be leading men. It just has to do with how interesting the role is."

Kove didn't intend to forge a career as a go-to heavy. Speaking to Uproxx in 2019, the actor stated that he only used his brawn early on in his career to get more screentime: "Because as [a] young actor, you're not getting a big part unless you're really lucky straight away. So you're getting a smaller role. And if it's an action role you would give anything physical."

Jesse Kove shared the screen with his father on numerous projects — including "D-Day: Dog Company," "VFW," and "Bare Knuckle Brawler" — before playing David, the varsity captain who, ironically, can be seen bullying a young John Kreese in the flashback scenes of "Cobra Kai" season three. But the actor insists that he was never pressured into following in Martin Kove's footsteps.

In a 2021 chat with Bleeding Cool, Jesse revealed that his career had been informed by his experiences of growing up on various film and TV sets. But his passion for acting was developed entirely on his own: "My parents never pushed me into the industry. ... They didn't want to be stage parents I guess you can say."

That's not to say that Jesse won't ask his dad for advice every now and again. Referring to his time on "Cobra Kai," the younger Kove recalled to Bleeding Cool, "I would come to him sometimes if I had a question. Dad was kind of like a dictionary. For the most part, I would have my own interpretation. Sometimes, he would give me some pointers and it would always be helpful. It was always to enhance the performance. What better way to get it than from someone who's been in the business for 50 years?" And in a chat with Vents Magazine, he shared another nugget from his dad: "Slow down. That's something that he's always imparted to me. Slow down and take your time."

Although Martin Kove has himself admitted in Men's Health that he shares some tendencies with his most famous character, the unhinged dojo leader John Kreese in "The Karate Kid" and "Cobra Kai," the actor appears to have kept this side well hidden on set. When asked by Variety whether the New Yorker was as intimidating as he appears, several cast members insisted that life didn't imitate art.

William Zabka, who plays Kreese's protégé Johnny Lawrence in the martial arts series, described his co-star as "very sweet" and as a "big brother figure." Ralph Macchio, who stars as nemesis Daniel LaRusso, went even further, claiming that Kove was actually something of a "teddy bear."

And Courtney Henggeler, who appears as LaRusso's wife Amanda, revealed that the franchise veteran is much cooler than his on-screen persona, particularly due to his penchant for cigar-smoking and sunglasses. She even joked that Kove appeared to be making an entirely different show to the rest of the "Cobra Kai" gang, adding, "I want to be on Marty's series because he's just cooler than anybody that we got going on. He's just his own vibe."

You might have expected Martin Kove to snap "Cobra Kai" producers' hands off when they offered him the chance to reprise his most famous role — especially considering one of his last projects was a Steve Guttenberg Syfy original titled "2 Lava 2 Lantula." But in fact, the actor was initially hesitant to assume the part of villainous dojo leader John Kreese once again. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2020, Kove revealed that although he was interested, he wanted reassurance that the YouTube Red series wouldn't simply be retreading old ground: "My basic insistence to the writers was, 'Are you going to write this character vulnerably? Are you going to give him some versatile situations?'"

Kove was left satisfied when he read the script for the show's second season opener and learned that far from being the big shot he presented, Kreese was now destitute and homeless. And the star also relished the rare opportunity to turn on the waterworks, too: "[Kreese] portrayed that everything's cool, and he's coming back, and he wants to be in Cobra Kai, because it's now big news. Then [Zabka's character] follows him one day, and they have a great scene in the shelter where I'm in tears, and Billy's in tears. He takes me back into Cobra Kai." 

The show also shares Kreese's backstory, giving him some layers that previously went unseen. "I don't look at him as a villain," Kove said in Page Six. "I look at him as a misunderstood character."

It takes a brave, or foolish, individual to go up against the man who has a black belt in Okinawa-te Karate, studied under martial arts expert Gordon Doversola Shihan, and plays one of the biggest baddies to have emerged in the VHS era. But back in the mid-1980s, shortly after "The Karate Kid" had grossed $359 million at the box office, Martin Kove was indeed attacked by a disgruntled viewer.

The incident happened while the actor was minding his own business at a Malibu supermarket. Luckily, the shopper who punched him in the back wasn't that much of a threat, as Kove explained to Page Six in 2021: "I turned around and it was a little kid about seven years old and he said, 'You hurt Ralph [Macchio]!'"

More than 35 years on and Kove believes that Kreese's origin story on "Cobra Kai" should prevent him from being physically attacked by first graders in his nearest Walmart ever again: "People don't really hate my character, especially now they have a fuller understanding of what made him the way he is." That said, it isn't all rays of sunshine. Speaking to CBR about returning to the role, Kreese said, "As this show evolves..., you learn much more about the character there's a vulnerability there, but he's still the John Kreese we all remember and hate. We love to hate this guy, or you hate to love him, whichever it is."

Martin Kove might not be the lean, mean middle-aged machine that he was in the "Rambo" sequel and "The Karate Kid" films of the 1980s. In fact, he's now well into his seventies. But when it comes to keeping fit, the tough guy can still put many gymgoers young enough to be his grandchildren to shame.

Even before reprising his role of John Kreese in "Cobra Kai," Kove told Men's Health he would often hit the tennis courts or go horseback riding to help stay in shape. But his workout regime has inevitably become far more intense since he signed on to play the merciless dojo leader once again. In a 2021 interview with Smashing Interviews Magazine, the actor revealed that he has a personal trainer who puts him through his paces: "I work out three days a week. I go to a private gym. I try to do it three times a week. Then the other days, I take the treadmill or the elliptical for half an hour or an hour."

Kove was particularly proud of the climactic, and slightly insane, battle scene in the show's third season, where almost every cast member gets a chance to sweep the leg. "We were practicing all season long for that," he said in Smashing Interviews Magazine. "So you stay in shape, and you work out in the gym when you're on location. There's a little gym in the places they put us up so we can condition ourselves."

A word of warning for anyone thinking of inviting Martin Kove out for a bite to eat: don't ever say "let's do lunch." As the "Steele Justice" star shared in the Chicago Tribune in 2019, he prides himself on being a straight-shooter and can't abide the kind of lingo that's become the norm among Tinseltown's players. In fact, he thinks anyone who uses such terms is usually "full of it."

Anyone answering the phone to the actor would also be advised to choose their words carefully, too. "I hate when you call an agent and their assistant speaks like this: 'I don't have him now, can he return?'" he shared in the Chicago Tribune. "What they mean is: 'He's not available now, or he's not in his office, can he call you back?' But instead it's that Hollywood: 'I don't have him now, can he return?' It makes my skin crawl. I just cringe. It's just so Hollywood."

Kove told the newspaper that such talk makes it hard to gauge when someone is being sincere. That's not something you need to worry about with the New Yorker himself, who boldly claimed, "I personally don't make any insincere statements."

With more than 230 credits spanning half a century to his name, Martin Kove has bagged a considerable number of paychecks. It's why, according to Celebrity Net Worth, anyway, that he now has a net worth of approximately $2 million. And with the actor now hotter than ever thanks to the success of "Cobra Kai" — he's since worked with Quentin Tarantino and enjoyed a brief but tough stint on "Dancing With the Stars" — you can expect that figure to grow over the next few years, too.

Kove certainly isn't afraid to splash his hard-earned cash, either. In a 2021 interview with Cowboys and Indians, the Hollywood veteran boasted about the property he'd just bought in Tennessee: "I've got 11 acres with a lake, and a broken-down barn, and an immaculate Tuscany Villa inside."

The New Yorker also revealed plans to turn his house into a museum of western movie posters — Kove is a massive fan of the genre — buy a couple of horses and fully restore the barn: "It's got three stalls in it, and it's going to be great. And I'm gonna get a period canoe to go in that lake, you know. I'll get a canoe like right out of "Last of the Mohicans.""