Everyone remembers where they were when they watched the "sweep the leg" scene in The Karate Kid for the first time. It's one of the most memorable and talked about scenes in movie history, Johnny Lawrence sweeping Daniel LaRusso's bad leg during the All Valley Karate tournament. Lawrence was played by actor William Zabka, and would you be surprised to know that this was his first major role?
Zabka embodied Johnny Lawrence to perfection, and for years and years after, he was known for this character, setting the rest of his career off to a great start. After The Karate Kid, Zabka went on to star in different projects, some involving different forms of karate, which he actively pursued in real life, and many of his projects have flown under the radar. Now, he leads the hit show Cobra Kai, which is coming to an end in the near future with its final season, and the show has been celebrated for how it's carried on The Karate Kid's legacy. Let's take a look at Zabka's best 10 projects that you should give a chance if you enjoy this actor.
10 Python (2000)
Sometimes you need to sit down and pop in a cheesy creature feature movie where the CGI isn't great, and it might not even be good, but the plot is funny, and the acting holds up. In Python, it takes the concept of Anaconda and any other giant snake movie and makes it original, yet very cheesy.
A cargo plane crashes just outside a small town, and it was transporting the biggest Python to ever exist, which causes major problems, as one might assume. Zabka plays Deputy Greg Larson, who leads point on this bizarre case, and in the sequel, he returns as an FBI agent looking to track down the creature once and for all.
9 Just One of the Guys (1985)
In the '80s, following the success of The Karate Kid, Zabka found himself only in roles of the "bully" in the films he was set to star in after the film. Zabka spoke out about how, after his role as Johnny Lawrence, people found it hard to like him in real life since they couldn't separate the character from the actual person. In Just One of the Guys, Zabka plays Greg Tolan, the school's best bodybuilder, and you guessed it, biggest bully.
Just One of the Guys is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, in which a woman goes undercover at an all-boys school to try and gain from her peers. Tolan is a slightly basic character, but he has solid one-liners, and it makes sense when he wins prom king and is still a jerk about it.
8 Back to School (1986)
Once again, Zabka takes on the role of bully and jock, but moves into the college world instead of high school in Back to School. Rodney Dangerfield stars in this comedy about an older, rich man who decides to go back to school with his son, and the results are just about as messy as you might think.
Rodney is a playboy and millionaire who, after feeling the distance between him and his son, decides to attend the same college and enroll in multiple classes. Zabka plays a guy named Chas, who is one of the best divers in the college and creates a rivalry of sorts with Dangerfield's character.
7 The Equalizer (1985-1989)
The Equalizer has been rebooted and redone a few times, but the original is something special, as it focuses on a retired spy who can't seem to get out of the business. Edward Woodward plays Robert McCall, a man who has worked for The Company for several years and, as he gets older, tries to find a different thing to do with his time and skills.
As the episodes progress, McCall gets brought back into the mess of things, and his estranged son, played by Zabka, gets pulled into it as well. He's only in twelve episodes but has some solid storylines as he's harassed by bad guys and even has a love interest in season two.
6 Shootfighter: Fight to the Death (1993)
Almost 10 years after Zabka made his acting debut in The Karate Kid, he put the gi back on and once again was taught under Martin Kove's character, who plays a bad guy, of course. The film revolves around two friends, Ruben (Zabka) and Nick (Michael Bernardo), who get mixed into a form of fighting where the match doesn't stop until someone is dead.
Ruben is strapped for cash and decides to learn under Mr. Lee (Kove) who shows no mercy to his opponents and sends Ruben down a bad path. This film isn't known for its great acting or cinematography, but the fighting sequences are solid and enjoyable to watch. It helps to know that after The Karate Kid, Zabka studied Tang Soo Do, a Korean branch of karate, which no doubt helped him in this role.
5 The Power Within (1995)
The Power Within is one of those movies that seems like a fever dream that you might have watched when you were a kid, and then you rediscover it years later and realize that it does actually exist. It follows a young guy named Stan who practices karate, and after his sensei falls into the hands of something evil, he acquires a ring that gives him special powers.
Along the way of figuring out what his journey is, he meets an evil man named Raymond Vonn who has a severe bob and small red glasses that really give him that evil-guy look. Vonn is a cheesy villain that can disappear in midair, but is ultimately defeated by Stan.
4 High Voltage (1997)
High Voltage is a bank heist movie that focuses on a robbery that was planned for a long time, but ultimately, fails to happen as multiple things go wrong. The film features Bruce Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee, as Jane Logan, the manager of the bank that the group of thieves plans to rob. Zabka plays one of the thieves named Bulldog, which isn't the best name, but his character is a bit out of control as he tries to go against the leader, Johnny. As the movie progresses, the robbery gets dragged on, and the ending isn't that great, but it's an enjoyable watch nonetheless.
3 How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014)
You might be surprised to find out that Zabka was in multiple episodes of this show, both as himself as well as a caricature of Johnny Lawrence. Throughout the series, main character Barney Stinson often talked about his love for The Karate Kid movies, and how the real champ of the first film was, in fact, Johnny Lawrence, and it became a bit in the series. It doesn't come as a surprise that Barney rooted for the "bad guy" of The Karate Kid, but in season eight, Robin makes his dream come true, and he gets to meet William Zabka.
It happens at a party, and Zabka comes dressed as a clown in order to disguise himself for the big reveal, saying a big speech about how Robin managed to track him down, and Barney's reaction is hilarious and seems very genuine. From there, Zabka appeared in a few more episodes, showing up and just sticking around and his involvement in the show is random but needed as the show comes to an end.
2 Cobra Kai (2018-Present)
Johnny Lawrence defenders, this one's for you. When Cobra Kai was released in 2018, lovers of the Karate Kid movies got to see a different side of the story, and it was told through the eyes of Johnny Lawrence. It was the perfect reboot to one of the most well-known franchises, and to have Johnny as a main character through all seasons, is much needed. Johnny's still a mess and can barely last a day without a Coors Banquet, but as each season passes, he has solid character arcs while still remaining seedy.
His redemption arc is something to note, especially if you found yourself rooting for Daniel LaRusso in the trilogy; you might be finding yourself rooting for Johnny instead. Cobra Kai is going into its sixth and final season sometime in the future, and we're excited to see how each character's story ends, especially Johnny's.
1 The Karate Kid (1984)
Zabka's best role, without a doubt, is his original portrayal of Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid. He was the perfect bully, and in an interview, Zabka shared that when they were filming the All Valley tournament at the end of the movie, the audience was booing him, even when the cameras weren't rolling. He was the ultimate bad boy of the '80s, and this role defined his career for the rest of his life.
If you watch the first movie again after not seeing it for a while, then it's obvious that Johnny is a bad kid, but his actions come from a higher power; his sensei, Kreese. After watching Cobra Kai, you might change your mind about how you feel about Johnny's actions in the first film, but ultimately, he was a great character and an even better foe to Daniel LaRusso.