Martin Kove (March 6 1946 ) is an American actor who has appeared in both feature films and television series.

His best known roles may have been on the 1980s hit TV series Cagney & Lacey as Det. Victor Isbecki and in the 1984 hit film The Karate Kid as Cobra Kai Sensei John Kreese. He reprised his role as Kreese in the 1986 hit sequel The Karate Kid, Part II and the 1989 sequel The Karate Kid, Part III. He studied Okinawa-te Karate under a prominent black belt of Shihan Gordon Doversola. In 1985, Kove played a mercenary helicopter pilot in Rambo: First Blood Part II.

Kove has starred in the short-lived television series Code R and Hard Time on Planet Earth and has made guest appearances on several television programs including Gunsmoke, Kojak, The Incredible Hulk, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Black Scorpion. In 2007, Kove appeared in the No More Kings video, Sweep The Leg, in a parody of his Karate Kid character.

Kove was born in Virginia and had a Jewish upbringing. He has been married to Vivienne Kove since 1981. In 1990, they welcomed twins, a boy named Jesse and girl named Rachel.

New York born, strong featured, narrow eyed and often untrustworthy looking 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 in White Line Fever (1975). He cropped up in the hit TV series "Cagney & Lacey" (1982) as honest Police Detective Isbecki, and then (stupidly) 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 (yet again, as another villain) in the hugely successful Karate Kid, The (1984) in which he played "John Kreese", the brutal head instructor of the Cobra Kai karate school, and he reprised the role in the two sequels, Karate Kid, Part II, The (1986) and Karate Kid, Part III, The (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.