Martin Kove


Martin Kove is an American actor and a martial artist. He is best known for his role as John Kreese, the main antagonist of The Karate Kid. Kove reprised the role in The Karate Kid Part II, The Karate Kid Part III, and the television series Cobra Kai. He was a regular on the television series Cagney & Lacey, portraying Police Detective Victor Isbecki. Kove also appeared in Rambo: First Blood Part II and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Early life

Martin Kove was adopted into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York in 1946 or 1947. His mother was a bookkeeper while his father worked in a hardware store. Kove has stated that his love for acting began during a fourth grade field trip to a play called “The Golden Goose.” He stated: “That’s when I got that feeling that you get on stage that this is for me.” Kove attended Valley Stream Central High School before attending ITT Technical Institute – Maumee Campus.

Career

Kove then attended Queensborough Community College. However, their Drama department was very limited, so he 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. Kove strictly worked in community theater until he was 23, he was then accepted into the NYU School of the Arts. In 1971, Kove got a call to be his stand in, for The Anderson Tapes. There, he met Sean Connery and asked him if he should build up his portfolio or continue with his schooling. Connery responded: "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. 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. At 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 punched 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.
In 2017, Kove appeared in an episode of the Goldbergs as master John in reference to his karate kid persona. The following year, Kove again returned to the character of Kreese for the YouTube Premium web series Cobra Kai, a continuation of The Karate Kid franchise set 34 years after the original 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, Netflix purchased the series, producing a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth season.
In 2019, Kove parodied his Karate Kid character in a QuickBooks commercial, in which a kinder, gentler Kreese runs a "Koala Kai" dojo of preteen students who are encouraged to "support the leg" and to show "more mercy." Kove received praise for his role in the short film The Roommates taking home best supporting actor at the 2020 Oceanside International Film Festival. He also played a lead role in the 2019 film VFW and made a appearance in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Kove was one of the celebrities competing on season 30 of Dancing with the Stars in 2021. He and his professional dance partner, Britt Stewart, were the first couple to be eliminated. In January of 2022 Kove and his two children started a podcast which ran until June of that same year. He started in the 2023 western film Far Haven and the 2024 film Fight Another day.
In May of 2025 the Tennessee General Assembly passed House Joint Resolution 677, celebrating Kove for his role in promoting martial arts via Cobra Kai and related projects.

Personal life

Kove is the father of twins, born in 1990. One of the twins, Jesse, portrayed the young man who bullies the younger version of his father’s character, John Kreese, in flashbacks for seasons 3 and 4 of Cobra Kai. He owns a 11-acre ranch near Nashville, Tennessee.
Kove has stated that he enjoys playing golf and riding horseback in his spare time, while also having a love for classic films such as old westerns. Kove works out and meditates regularly and still trains in karate; he has credited the sport for helping him maintain his focus, discipline and longevity.
In 2021, Kove participated in the "No Mercy on Stroke" campaign launched by the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology to raise public awareness about stroke symptoms and the importance of rapid response.
In March 2025, Kove announced that he partnered with La Casa Grande Cigars to start his own cigar line titled "The Prodigal Son", which was officially released in stores later that year in August.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

  • Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising as John Kreese

    Awards and nominations