New York born, strong featured, narrow eyed actor who has portrayed a
mixed bag of both good and bad guys! First turned up on screen in several
minor roles, and got himself noticed as the villainous "Nero The Hero" in
the low budget road race Death Race 2000(1975), and then as "Clem" the
sadistic rigger, breaking Jan-Michael Vincent's ribs inWhite Line
Fever (1975). He cropped up in the hit TV series "Cagney & Lacey" (1981) as
honest Police Detective Isbecki, and then got on the wrong side of
rampaging Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
Kove probably scored his greatest visibility to the public ( in the hugely
successful The Karate Kid (1984) in which he played "John Kreese", the head
instructor of the Cobra Kai karate school, and he reprised the role in the
two sequels, The Karate Kid, Part II (1986) and The Karate Kid, Part
III (1989).
Kove has since kept consistently busy, primarily in the action / thriller
film genre, and has notched up over 80 film appearances to date, as well as
numerous TV guest roles.