On the March cover of The Rich Reporter we shine a spotlight on Martin Kove who is a legend in the world of film and television, best known for his iconic role as John Kreese in The Karate Kid and its wildly popular sequel series, Cobra Kai. With a career spanning decades, Kove has made his mark in everything from action films to westerns, solidifying his place as a Hollywood mainstay. While Cobra Kai may have introduced him to a new generation, longtime fans recognize him from classics like Rambo: First Blood Part II, Wyatt Earp, and countless other projects that showcased his signature tough-guy persona. However, in our conversation, we dove deeper into the man behind the villain, exploring the layers of Kreese, his latest creative endeavors, and what the future holds post-Cobra Kai.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Kove’s Cobra Kai arc was the rare glimpse into John Kreese’s vulnerable side. While the character has long been known for his ruthless, no-mercy philosophy, the series revealed the deeper wounds and motivations that shaped him, making him more than just a one-dimensional antagonist. Kove shared his thoughts on portraying this complexity and how it changed the way fans viewed Kreese over the years. We also discussed his newest ventures outside of acting, including The Prodigal Son cigars—a collaboration with LCG Cigars and Pauly DiSilvio—as well as his passion project, a comic book series of the same name.
With Cobra Kai officially wrapping up its final season, Kove reflected on what’s next for him in the industry and how it feels to close this chapter of his career. Beyond that, he opened up about a different kind of pride—watching his son, Jesse Kove, carve out his own path as an actor. Seeing the next generation step into the spotlight has been both rewarding and inspiring for him. Whether it’s acting, writing, or launching new creative projects, Kove shows no signs of slowing down, proving that his legacy extends far beyond the dojo.
BRIAN BREACH:
I’m Brian Breach, founder of The Rich Reporter, and we have a special guest here with us today from Karate Kid to Cobra Kai and hundreds of projects in between. This man is a cultural icon and he literally shows no mercy. Today we have with us Martin Kove.
Martin, so the Karate Kid was originally released in 1984, so obviously you did back-to-back movies one, two, and three, so it was a little bit easier to get into character. Now that there was a gap between Karate Kid and Cobra Kai, how easy was it for you to get back into character? Was it simple to just throw on the karate uniform again or did you have to get back into character by different methods?
MARTIN KOVE:
Well, I asked the writers when they first brought me in. They had signed Billy and signed Ralph, and I wanted to play the character more vulnerably. I wanted them to write him with flashbacks, write him with an arc more colorful than just a tough guy, and they did.
And, you know, I wanted people to know why he is the way he is, and I just didn’t have an interest in playing just a heavy, you know, as I did an interesting heavy as I did in Karate Kid 1, but I wanted something a little more exciting and vulnerable for me because I like to play softer, more romantic characters, and they did. So getting into the character was probably harder because we had all these elements of these backstories I create of why he is the way he is. The writers are terrific.
I mean, you know, I think all my notes, I met with mercenaries, I met with army rangers, I met with a lot of people right before season two, and all the notes I made, I presented to them, they had already done all that homework. They were like a year and a half ahead of the development of you as a character. So they knew everything about your character a couple years, you know, before you even hit the screen, you know. So it was great.
BRIAN BREACH:
That’s amazing. Now, you mentioned something about the flashback scene, and as I recall, your son Jesse Cove is actually in the flashback scene in the diner. What is it like to see your son also in Cobra Kai with you, and did you have any scenes with him specifically?
MARTIN KOVE:
I didn’t, no. I didn’t have any. I didn’t even work that day, but it was great.
You know, he’s got a lot of projects coming out. One I produced, a western called The Gunfighter’s Deal. It’s the story of a coward in a town who goes and makes a deal with the devil to be the fastest gun in the west, and we shot it in Florida, and we had a great time.
And he’s very good, very vulnerable, and he’s got a lot of different projects coming out. But what I liked about working with my son, even though I had no scenes, as I go into the diner that day, season three, I think, all of a sudden the writers just come up to me. Because I was going to ask, how’s he doing?
And he was already working, and they just ran up to me and said, he’s killing it. He’s killing it. So I loved it, you know, and I watched him the whole day, and he was very good.
He was really very good. And, you know, it isn’t because he’s my son. He just, he reminds me of Cary Grant, you know, where you can, Cary Grant used to be great in comedy.
He’s great as a romantic, Arsenic and Old Lace, that, you know, kind of, the kind of comedy that’s farcical. And yet he would do films like The Pride and the Passion, or North by Northwest, you know, and there was serious drama. And he was terrific.
And Jesse does that. Jesse’s terrific. Far more logical than I was at his age.
You know, he’s 34. When I was 34, I was trying to be Steve McQueen.
BRIAN BREACH:
Right. You know, everything Steve McQueen. Yeah, yeah.
He’s got a good dad. Now, what are the craziest, when people see you on the streets, what are the craziest things people yell out to you? And what is the craziest fan interaction that you’ve ever had in the history of your career or affiliated with Karate Kid or Cobra Kai?
MARTIN KOVE:
Affiliated with Karate Kid and Cobra Kai. Well, you do these, you do these caveats, you know, people have requests. There was a request that came in, and I try to make note of some of them, because they treat John Kreese as like a sage, you know, like people, they love to hate you, but they really love you at the same time.
And there’s one, it was hysterical. This one request came in to do a pep talk for this man’s son, because he had an operation. They operated on one of his, on his testicles, and they had to take out a testicle.
So I get this, and I say, wow, this is crazy. And the boy was insecure, and he was depressed that they had this operation, didn’t feel equal. So I got on, on there, and I said, this is Martin Kove, a.k.a. John Kreese, and I want to tell you, Ernie, that just because you have one ball or 17 balls, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to be fine, and you have nothing to be upset about, because you’re Cobra Kai, because you understand the concept that mercy is for the weak. And that’s what I did. And the guy loved it, sent me letters, and yeah.
So you get all that kind of contribution to, you get to be able to contribute to making people happy, and yet your character is not apple pie. You know, he’s tough.
BRIAN BREACH:
Well, that being said, if ever I lose one of my balls, I’m definitely going to reach out to you for a positive message. That was absolutely incredible. So obviously, throughout your career, and especially during the early Karate Kids, you had a massive amount of fame, but you’ve been a part of hundreds of projects, most notably the Karate Kid.
What’s it like, after all these years, to be thrust back into this level of fame, because there’s such fandom for Cobra Kai? So what’s it like being in the spotlight again, having thousands of fans wanting your autograph?
MARTIN KOVE:
Well, you just, you know, the best answer is that, you know, there’s a book. They wanted to do a book on me. And I said, I’m not book material.
You know, I said, Marlon Brando’s book material, Anthony Hopkins’ book material. Why do you want to do a book on me? And they had said, because you come from a background where your mother was in Brooklyn, bookkeeper, and your father was a hardware retailer.
And you had no connections to Hollywood or to anything really creative. And you just came up the ranks because you were tenacious. And they had all this information on my background.
And that was true. I was tenacious, you know. And the book is about tenacity.
It’s about what every actor needs. You know, they need to know that if you’re not hired, it’s their mistake, you know. And actors need to know that.
They need to see that wonderful show, The Offer, which is all about the making of The Godfather. It’s on Paramount+. And I tell actors to do that and watch it.
Young actors, watch it. Watch how Al Ruddy went through trying to make that movie when the studio wanted Robert Redford to play Al Pacino’s part. They didn’t want Coppola to direct.
It was a mess. And yet, the movie not only got made, but became the classic that it is, you know. So, I think that to answer your question, you know, it’s just all those other projects, there were some you’re really happy about.
There were some that you like to forget. There were some you did for a paycheck. There were some you worked on.
I think the greatest thing I ever learned was you can’t fix a movie by a good performance. And I tell that to my kids on Cobra Kai. Even though you love the script and you think it’s really exciting and you like the character, but it really isn’t written that well, the literature, you shouldn’t do it.
Unless you’re doing it because you need the money and you want to try out different acting techniques and things. But know going in that if it’s not on the page, it’s not there, you know.
BRIAN BREACH:
Outside of the Karate Kid movies and even Cobra Kai, what was your favorite movie to work on and who was one of your favorite actors that you’ve ever worked with on any of these movies?
MARTIN KOVE:
Well, one of my favorite people of all time is Quentin Tarantino. I mean, I did Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and it was short. I opened up the movie and it was really funny because at the premiere, I was given the wrong seat.
So, at the time, my girlfriend and I were looking at the seat numbers and the movie came on and I didn’t catch, I’m in the first scene, I didn’t catch it. And I watched the whole movie and I thought, well, I guess he cut me out because he could cut people. And I watched the whole movie and then all of a sudden I’m outside in the lobby and Eli Roth comes up to me and he says, he says, you were great, man.
You were just terrific. A little too short a scene. I would like to have seen more of you, but you were terrific.
So, I said, oh, oh, thanks, man. Really, you know, I played it like I saw it. And I said, I guess I really was in the movie, but how did I miss it?
Then my PR guy came up to me and said the same thing. He says, it was a short scene, but you were great. You really were great.
I said, well, when was it? He says, it was the opening scene of the movie. So, of course, I’m looking down, looking for a new seat, you know, and I stayed in the movie.
So, working with him was very special and DiCaprio was very special, the scenes with, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio. It was great. I just had a really good time with him.
He loves Westerns, you know, and we have the same kind of movie posters that are, the movie posters in Europe are painted, where our movie posters, most of the time, the one sheets are photographs. So, you know, that’s what we were talking about. And, you know, working with Anthony Hopkins on those other movies, terrific.
And, you know, there’s so many, I mean, Sean Connery was very special and I was his stand-in in the early days of my career and he was a great guy, great guy.
BRIAN BREACH:
Now, if you had one superpower that you could come up with and you can apply it to using it in the Cobra Kai dojo, what would it be? And what would you use it for?
MARTIN KOVE:
It’s an easy question. I would use the power of making people disappear. So, if I found a martial artist, if I found a martial artist that kept insisting he was terrific, which has been the case many times in the script, you know, I remember the Stingray character, you know, Paul Michael Hauser, I think it is.
And he wanted to be in the dojo so badly. And I was teaching something in the dojo and there was a line that I said, and I loved it. There was a line and he kept going on and on and on.
I want to be in the class. And finally I ignored him. And then I just gave him this one line with the venom and the deliberation of John Kreese.
I said, you can leave now because you have no value here. And I reduced him. But the character was so funny.
He played it so well that he didn’t even get it. So, if you said that to anybody in life, you know, you have no value here. They would get it that there’s no purpose for them to be in the room and they can leave.
So, I think having the superpower of being able to make people disappear would be wonderful because I think we could do that in life in general. You know, you have someone, especially these comic cons, you know, people are a little obnoxious and aggressive. You try to tolerate them because you don’t have that power.
I wish I had that.
BRIAN BREACH:
Now, out of all the years that you were doing Karate Kid and Cobra Kai and all the fight scenes you’ve done, have you ever actually injured somebody in the process of doing any of these fight scenes?
MARTIN KOVE:
No, I’ve never injured anyone. I’ve gotten injured in Karate Kid 2 going through the window and the real glass never broke properly and had shards of glass coming out of my hand. But have I ever hurt anybody?
I don’t think so, no. You know, I mean, there were times I hurt myself. I mean, there were times I could go off and see, you know, sometimes there’s a Martin Retrospective group of films that are playing that I did.
One time I saw White Line Fever, a movie I did when I was first in Hollywood and it was with Jan Michael Vincent and I loved it because it was with everybody from the Wild Bunch. It was with LQ Jones and Slim Pickens and, you know, it had all the group. And I see myself fighting in a fight scene, falling off a truck, but in those days I would lift myself up and fall down.
Now I just, boom, go down like a domino because you’re older and your shoulder’s hurt, your knee’s hurt. And I realized as I watched this movie, I said, that’s why my shoulder is such a mess. Because instead of just falling down, you would do something externally exciting that the director would get notice, would see you and say, wow, that Marty Kove, he’s really into this moment.
And you’d hurt yourself, but at the expense of looking good and being excessive. And many times I’ve seen that, you know, were you falling over chairs and tables and, you know, oh, I don’t need any pads. No, no, I don’t need any pads.
I don’t need this stuff, man. I can do it. Now it’s a whole other game.
BRIAN BREACH:
So Martin, we hear you’re coming out with a cigar line. You collab with Pauly Cigars and LCG Cigars called The Prodigal Son. Tell us where your love for cigars came into first play and tell us a little bit about the cigar line.
MARTIN KOVE:
Well, I find cigars very relaxing. I like to sit at the ranch and just have a cigar and read. I have five places on my acreage where I’ve set up chairs just to sit and have a cigar and read or meditate.
And I find they’re very relaxing, good cigars. And I think my initial experience was with a cigar called the Royal Jamaican cigars. And they came out of Jamaica and they were very mild.
This was ages ago. And there was a little shop on Sunset Boulevard and I would go by there and I would pick up a few Royal Jamaican cigars and smoke them. Years later, I did a movie with Fred Williamson and he has a cigar plantation in Jamaica.
So it was a lot of fun. But he, in actuality, I think he had different cigars. But over the years, I just changed cigars.
And when I met Pauly DiSilvio, he said, let’s do a cigar called The Prodigal Son. And this is The Prodigal Son. And I always felt that these cigars will come out within a month.
The Prodigal Son is something I own. And it’s the story, it’s four comic books, which will now be a graphic novel. At the end of this month, it will be released.
And it’s a story of a crazy killer, an old man, who has been ostracized from his bank, his gang. And it’s a story of how he and a 12-year-old boy bond and how they exchange moral fiber together. Kid becomes a wonderful survivalist.
I become a human being. And we’re going to do it as a series. And it’s really interesting because my partners, they made Mudbound, they made Peanut Butter Falcon, Chris and Tim, and also Jeff Frost, who was originally the president of Sony Television, big sponsor of Cobra Kai.
So ultimately, my love for the Western, but the real reason to do this is, I don’t think kids have a lot of heroes these days. When I grew up, there were 35 Westerns on primetime TV. And you had your choice.
Now John Wayne’s gone. Clint’s getting a little older. Kids have no heroes, except what’s manufactured through special effects.
I want them to learn about Ethan Edwards, the character played by John Wayne in The Searchers. Movies like Red River. I just don’t think kids have enough heroes.
And I’m trying to model this so that adults will find my character, the man in black, a hero, as well as the kids will find this 12-year-old a hero, because they’re exchanging moral values with each other. And that’s what the comic books are about, and that’s what I think we need more of in cinema. And The Cigar just falls into the whole game because it allows you to relax enough to rewrite and become creative and be alone with yourself.
And just eventually have a moment of calmness. And I think in my business, being calm and meditating and all is essential.
BRIAN BREACH:
Now that Cobra Kai is over and part three of season six has ended, what are you starting to work on in the future? And do you see another universe where Karate Kid and Cobra Kai in some way, shape, or form, whether it be now or years down the line, take shape?
MARTIN KOVE:
Well, I think my immediate… I’m gravitating to getting this completed as a series. And another project we have called Dodge, which is the story of how Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday met prior to Tombstone.
Written by the same people that wrote Tombstone. And it’s a terrific little project. I just love…
I love westerns because I think it’s the American heritage of cinema. You know, back in 1906, I think it was, Thomas Edison decided to make a western as his first movie. It was called The Great Trade Robbery.
It was a silent movie. But, you know, there’s something marvelously solid. Extremely difficult, but marvelously solid and showing a great deal of integrity and drive is that move west.
And of course, you know, they did a lot of unethical things to gain all the property and the size of America back in those days. But it was really about… It was being tenacious and having a lot of fortitude.
And I think Americans need to see that again. Not so much special effects, not so much, you know, gangster movies. They were all interesting to the heritage.
I mean, there were so many gangster movies in the 30s when they had started sound. You know, those gangster movies, The Public Enemy with James Cagney and all, they came before the MGM musical, you know. And it was all very exciting then.
And I think, you know, there are some projects… I would love… I could never do it as a movie.
But I love Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole in Lion in Winter. Every line is brilliant by Goldman. He just wrote it, you know, and it was brilliant.
But how do you… It’s 1968. How do you improve on that?
So all I would like to do is really do it as a play. I’d like to go back on stage and do it because I came out of Off-Broadway and I came out of Lincoln Center. And I miss…
If I can maintain enough energy to do it again in a small theater somewhere, I would love to do The Lion in Winter.
Martin Kove remains as dynamic and passionate as ever, both on and off the screen. As Cobra Kai comes to a close, he’s embracing new ventures with the same intensity that made John Kreese an unforgettable character. From his Prodigal Son cigar line to his impressive comic book collection, Kove’s interests reflect his bold personality and deep appreciation for storytelling. Beyond the tough exterior of his iconic role, he reminds us that even Kreese has a vulnerable side—one shaped by pain, survival, and a relentless will to win. As he looks ahead, Kove proves he’s far from done, continuing to evolve, create, and leave his mark in new and unexpected ways.
