The Karate Kid cast: Where are they now?

Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso)

On top of playing everyone's favorite '80s hero Daniel LaRusso, Macchio starred in some other popular movies of yore, including The Outsiders (1983) and My Cousin Vinny (1992). In the 21st century, he appeared on various sitcoms as himself, with the most memorable being on How I Met Your Mother with another special guest (more on that later).

He also had running stints on popular shows like Ugly Betty and Psych. Oh, and he also placed fourth on Dancing With the Stars in 2011 with multiple scores of 30. We wonder what his training process was like? In 2022, Macchio published his memoir, Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me.

"The Karate Kid has never gone away, certainly not for me," he told EW ahead of his memoir's release. "I kept thinking what a unique story I have, and walking in the shoes of this character, who has become such an inspirational character to so many generations around the world. I felt it was a unique story to tell."

Macchio married his wife, Phyllis Fierro, in 1987. They have two children.

Pat Morita (Kesuke Miyagi)

In case you forgot, Pat Morita got a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars for his turn as Daniel's instructor, Mr. Miyagi. "Wax on, wax off" has lived on for decades, but Morita also guest-starred in quite a few high-profile television shows following The Karate Kid and its subsequent sequels, including Baywatch and The Hughleys.

Morita had to fight to be cast in The Karate Kid due to producer Jerry Weintraub's bias against him for his comedic background. "He wouldn't even consider me for a reading," Morita revealed in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation. "Every time my name came up in the casting process, he was adamant: 'I don't want a comedian. I don't want a comic actor for this role. This is a heavyweight part. I want an actor.'"

Younger fans who weren't around for the film's success may also recognize him as the voice of the Emperor in Disney's Mulan (1998). Morita died in 2005 at age 73 due to kidney failure. Though Morita is not on Cobra Kai, Mr. Miyagi's defense-based training methods live on.

Elisabeth Shue (Ali Mills)

Back in 1984, Elisabeth Shue shined as Ali, the central love interest in The Karate Kid, and audiences fell in love with her, too.

"It was my first movie, and Ralph was this big movie star," Shue recalled in a 2022 interview with EW. "He was in a double banger, which is like one big trailer cut in half, and then we were in honeywagons, which were these teeny boxes. We were all so jealous that he had a manager — like whoa, he's so important. [Laughs] We were all beginners. I remember [during] the break the radio scene, every time I hit [William], I was always hitting him too hard."

After a successful run in the '80s and '90s — including 1995's Leaving Las Vegas, which netted her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress — Shue narrated 2002's Tuck Everlasting, and, in an underappreciated role, appeared as herself in 2008's Hamlet 2. Other films Shue has appeared in include Battle of the Sexes (2017), Death Wish (2018), and Greyhound (2020). She appeared as a regular on CSI for four seasons as Julie Finlay, followed by an arc as Madelyn Stillwell on The Boys. Shue made a guest appearance in the third season of Cobra Kai.

Shue has been married to Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim since 1994.

Randee Heller (Lucille LaRusso)

Randee Heller played Daniel's mother, Lucille, in the Karate Kid franchise.

Heller spoke with Vulture in 2010 about her correspondence with her former movie son. "We’ve been hooking up over emails and texting each other ever since the Karate Kid remake. No, I didn’t see it. But it’s always, 'Hi, mom!' He calls me mom."

After Karate Kid, Heller landed multiple guest roles on popular television shows like Who's the Boss?, Felicity, ER, Nip/Tuck, and Mad Men, for which she earned an Emmy nomination. She also appeared in 2017's A Crooked Somebody alongside Ed Harris and Joanne Froggatt. Heller has popped up in multiple seasons of Cobra Kai.

Heller is in a relationship with TV writer-producer Robert Griffard and has two daughters.

William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence)

Though he had no previous martial arts experience before his breakout role as Johnny Lawrence, Zabka actually went on to earn a green belt in Tang Soo Do after filming.

"When I read the Karate Kid script, as I turned the pages, I was like, 'I'm never getting this part,'" Zabka recalled to EW in 2021. "'He's a black belt; I didn't know karate. He's a motorcycle gang leader; I don't know how to ride a motorcycle. He's mean — the last thing I did was a milk commercial, maybe an M&Ms commercial. They're never gonna see me as this gang karate guy.'"

Since The Karate Kid, he's tried his hand at directing music videos like No More Kings' "Sweep the Leg" and Rascal Flatts' "Why Wait." Fans also caught Zabka as a recurring guest star on How I Met Your Mother as Barney Stinson's (Neil Patrick Harris) hero — appearing in an episode alongside Macchio. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004 for Best Live Action Short Film for Most, a Czech short he co-wrote and co-produced.

Zabka and his wife, Stacie, have two children.

Martin Kove (Kreese)

As head instructor of Cobra Kai, Martin Kove had quite the memorable turn, reprising his role in the two Karate Kid sequels.

"We do a lot of panels and autograph shows and the same three factors as to why people feel such an affinity with the movie always come up," Kove told Forbes of The Karate Kid in 2018. "The first is that they were being bullied in 1984 and they identify with the resolution of that, the second is they were a fish out of water and were moving around a lot, and the third one is that they had a romance that didn't work out."

Since The Karate Kid, he's beefed up his résumé with appearances in action-thriller projects, and reprised his role as Kreese on Tosh.0. Kove competed in the 30th season of Dancing With the Stars in 2021, though his run wasn't as successful as Macchio's, becoming the first celebrity eliminated. After a season 1 guest appearance on Cobra Kai, Kove became a main cast member on the series.