Martin Kove

Martin Kove (/ˈkoʊv/; born 1947 or 1948) is an American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his role as John Kreese, the main antagonist of The Karate Kid (1984). Kove reprised the role in The Karate Kid Part II (1986), The Karate Kid Part III (1989), and the television series Cobra Kai (2018–2025). He also appeared as Nero the Hero in Death Race 2000 (1975), and afterward as Clem in White Line Fever (1975). Kove was a regular on the TV series Cagney & Lacey (1982–1988), portraying Police Detective Victor Isbecki. He appeared in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

Martin Kove was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Valley Stream Central High School before attending ITT Technical Institute – Maumee Campus.

Kove then attended Queensborough Community College. But their Drama department was very limited, so Kove would go around to different universities that had good drama departments and would audition for their plays, even though he was not an attendant of the school. Sometimes getting the role and other times getting figured out. He strictly worked in community theater until he was 23, he was then accepted into the NYU School of the Arts. In 1971 he got a call to be his stand in, for The Anderson Tapes. Here he met Sean Connery and ask him if he Should build up his portfolio or continue with his schooling. Connery responded stating ‘Young man, if you can do the classics, you can do anything, why bother going back to school."

Kove took Connery’s advice and quit school and his job working as a substitute math teacher at the Ward Melville High School, moving to Los Angeles to pursue his career in acting. From there Kove continued to build up his portfolio with smaller roles in films such as Women in Revolt, Savages and Cops and Robbers. Then by 1975, with a number of movies and television spots under his belt, Kove joined the cast of Capone where he played Peter "Goosey" Gunsenburg also appearing in Death Race 2000. He got his first reoccurring role in the 1977 show Code R but it only lasted one season. From 1982 to 1988, Kove appeared in the main cast of Cagney & Lacey as New York City Detective Victor Isbecki, a supporting role he reprised in subsequent television movies for the series. During the same time, Kove appeared in the 1984 hit film The Karate Kid as Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese, whose fighting instruction of showing "no mercy" and to "sweep the leg" during the film’s karate tournament entered the American zeitgeist. After playing a traitorous helicopter pilot in the 1985 film Rambo: First Blood Part II, he returned as Kreese for the 1986 sequel The Karate Kid Part II and the 1989 sequel The Karate Kid Part III. While shooting the car window punching scene for The Karate Kid II, Kove actually had punch through the glass himself due to the special effects failing.

During the 1990s Kove continued to appear in numerous films and TV shows such as TimeLock, Frank and Jesse, Project Shawdowchaser also starting in the Vietnam war film Firehawk. He made multiple appearances in the television shows Hard Time on Planet Earth, Renegade and Diagnosis Murder.

In his only directorial effort, Kove directed a season 3 episode of Silk Stalkings entitled "These Stalkings are Too Hot" in 1994.

Kove studied Okinawa-te karate under prominent black belt Gordon Doversola Shihan. He has also trained in Kendo and Taekwondo and later on earned his black belt in Okinawa-te karate.

Kove continued making multiple appearances in films and television during the 2000s. He also 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.