Martin KOVE
IN HIS OTHER LIFE, MARTIN KOVE IS A cowboy.
Sure, the Brooklyn-born actor may be best known for his signature role as John Kreese, the ferociously demanding sensei introduced in The Karate Kid (1984) and its two sequels, and currently on view in the smash-hit Netflix series Cobra Kai. And nostalgic TV viewers might recall his multi-season run as Det. Victor Isbecki on Cagney & Lacey.
Take a close look at his other credits, however, and you’ll find a number of TV and movie westerns, ranging from a guest spot on the original Gunsmoke to a costarring part in Wyatt Earp (1994) — which called for his bad-guy character to punch Kevin Costner’s titular hero — to, most recently, his cameo in the faux TV series Bounty Law that introduces Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
Off-screen, Kove has eagerly participated almost every year since 1983 in an annual trek to Wyoming’s Hole-in-the-Wall — yep, the very place where Butch and Sundance used to lie low — so he and his friends can cowboy up. “We rent horses,” he said during a break from filming , “and we ride for like eight hours a day, maybe 10 miles a day. We’re there five
