William Zabka

William Zabka

Birth : 1965-10-20, New York City, New York, USA

History

William Michael "Billy" Zabka (born October 20, 1965) is an American actor, martial artist, screenwriter, and film producer. Zabka is best known for his role of Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid (1984), The Karate Kid Part II (1986), and decades later reprises the role of Johnny in the Netflix series Cobra Kai (2018-), along with Ralph Macchio as Daniel. During the 1980s, Zabka appeared in the comedy movies Just One of the Guys (1985) and Back to School (1986). Zabka also co-starred on the CBS television series The Equalizer as the son of the title character (1986–89). He also played Jack, Audrey's jock boyfriend, in National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985). During the 1990s and 2000s, he acted mostly in independent films while studying to be a filmmaker. In 2003, he wrote and produced the short film Most, shot on location in the Czech Republic and Poland. Most (aka The Bridge) had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2003 and won numerous awards at prestigious film festivals, including Best of Festival at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films in 2003. In 2004, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Most in the Live Action Short Film category.

Profile

William Zabka
William Zabka
William Zabka
William Zabka

Movies

More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story
Self
The Oscar nominated actor best known for his role of Mr. Miyagi, left behind a painfully revealing autobiographical record of his much-too-brief time here on earth. Tracing his journey from being bed bound as a boy to the bright lights and discrimination in Hollywood. Deep inside that sweet, generous, multi-talented performer seethed an army of demons, that even alcohol and drugs couldn't mask.
John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs
An examination of the Oscar-winning director who brought to life some of cinema's most beloved motion pictures.
The Man in the Silo
Kevin
Racial family conflict results in a horrific car accident that leaves Marcus Wells a successful African American executive, proud husband and father--alone, in a secret world of guilt and despair, while he cares for his wife's incapacitated grandmother. Displaced from city to farm life, Marcus faces his darkest fears, his wife's vengeful grandmother, and the truth about himself.
Where Hope Grows
Milton Malcolm
Calvin Campbell is a former professional baseball player sent to an early retirement due to his panic attacks at the plate. Even though he had all the talent for the big leagues, he struggles with the curveballs life has thrown him. Today, he mindlessly sleepwalks through his days and the challenge of raising his teenager daughter. His life is in a slow downward spiral when it is suddenly awakened and invigorated by the most unlikely person – Produce, a young-man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store.
Cross
Saw
Given incredible power by an ancient Celtic Cross. Callan continues to fight evil... Now, joined by a team of weapons experts, Callan battles an unstoppable empire in Los Angeles.
Hot Tub Time Machine
Rick
Four pals are stuck in a rut in adulthood: Adam has just been dumped, Lou is a hopeless party animal, Craig is a henpecked husband, and Jacob does nothing but play video games in his basement. But they get a chance to brighten their future by changing their past after a night of heavy drinking in a ski-resort hot tub results in their waking up in 1986.
Smiley Face
Prison Guard
Jane, a struggling but perpetually stoned actress, has a busy day ahead. She has several important tasks on her list, including buying more marijuana. Even though she already has a good start on the day's planned drug use, she eats her roommate's pot-laced cupcakes and embarks on a series of misadventures all over Los Angeles.
Cake: A Wedding Story
Sam
When two star-crossed lovers, set on eloping, are forced into having a big wedding, the bride develops a plan of her own. Unfortunately, the groom is not privy to the plan. Meanwhile, family and friends start to take sides at a reception for a wedding that never took place!
Sweep the Leg
Director
Sweep the Leg incorpoarates elements of the 1984 film The Karate Kid and features appearances by nearly the entire original cast. Martin Kove reprises his role as Sensei Kreese, and actors who played the Cobra Kai members in the 1984 film, Ron Thomas, Rob Garrison, and Tony O'Dell are also part of the cast. William Zabka, who played Johnny Lawrence in the film, directed the video. Pat E. Johnson, who was the martial arts director for the film as well as the martial arts director for Bruce Lee, worked on this video. Dennis Haskins and Liza Snyder also make an appearance. "Sweep the Leg" was also featured on Sony's MLB 08: The Show.
Sweep the Leg
Johnny Lawrence
Sweep the Leg incorpoarates elements of the 1984 film The Karate Kid and features appearances by nearly the entire original cast. Martin Kove reprises his role as Sensei Kreese, and actors who played the Cobra Kai members in the 1984 film, Ron Thomas, Rob Garrison, and Tony O'Dell are also part of the cast. William Zabka, who played Johnny Lawrence in the film, directed the video. Pat E. Johnson, who was the martial arts director for the film as well as the martial arts director for Bruce Lee, worked on this video. Dennis Haskins and Liza Snyder also make an appearance. "Sweep the Leg" was also featured on Sony's MLB 08: The Show.
The Way of The Karate Kid
Self / Johnny
Retrospective documentary on the making of The Karate Kid (1984).
Wild Roomies
Slick Salesman
After his last girlfriend slept with his last roommate, Reno Rizzolla moves to L.A. with his new girlfriend... and chaos ensues when the debt on the house forces him to get roommates.
Most
Producer
A poetic and powerful story of a father forced to choose between love and duty.
Most
Writer
A poetic and powerful story of a father forced to choose between love and duty.
Antibody
Otto Emmerick
After a terrorist with an implanted nuclear detonator gets shot, a team of scientists must defuse the bomb by miniaturizing themselves and going into his bloodstream. His organism's antibodies start to mass against them.
Dark Descent
Marty
Deep in the Mariana Sea Trench, a corporate underwater mining complex has been built - an industrial Atlantis. When an accident in a dry-dock chamber kills several miners an investigator is sent to find the cause and immediately finds out that it was not an accident. He becomes caught in the middle of a deadly conflict between the miners and the corporation, and fights to stay alive and uncover the truth.
Python 2
Greg Larson
A man, his business partner, and his wife are enlisted to transport an unknown object from a Russian military base, only to discover that the object is a giant, genetically-altered python.
Ablaze
Curt Peters
The owner of a gigantic oil refinery decides to burn the place down for insurance purposes, only to create a giant fireball that endangers the lives of a small town.
Hyper Sonic
The Executive
In order to win $25 million, Daredevil pilots enter the worlds fastest jet race.
Gale Force
Rance
Renegade L.A. detective Sam (Williams) takes a role as a cast member in a reality TV show where he leads a quartet trying to find ten million dollars in buried cash. But Jared (Dudikoff) secretly lands his violent militia on the island in an effort to slay the cast and steal the money. And Jared is successful: Thanks to a corrupt producer, the renegade mercenaries find the cache of cash and start off with it, but Sam and his intrepid, unarmed teammates interrupt them before they can depart. An explosion-filled chase across the island winds up with the good guys trapped by the heavily armed bad guys, and it looks like the game is over for the TV show survivors. However, Mother Nature, in the guises of a hurricane and tidal wave, has other ideas.
Epoch
Rover Driver Joe
Disaster strikes as a specialised team of investigators struggle to find out the truth about a strange monolith which sends out an intercontinental signal.
Falcon Down
John - Security Guard
U.S. Air force officer Hank Thomas attempts to expose a military cover-up after a civiian airliner crashes.
Project: Human Weapon
Rojack
Griffin Michael is the only survivor of a top-secret C.I.A. program that raised five people to become superweapons—human killing machines. Griffin has been trained to use his mind as a weapon: with a small brain impulse he can move objects hundreds of times his own weight, and can kill with a single thought. Now he is about to be released from the remote secret facility where he has been raised, and unleashed on an unsuspecting world...
Python
Greg Larsen
Sleepy New Haven California is a small town with a big problem. A sixty foot slithering horror has arrived and shattered the town's tranquillity on it's path of death and destruction... Growing violent and more savage with each attack the gigantic creature soon becomes an unstoppable feeding machine raging beyond control of it's creator, leaving only the stripped bones of it's victims in it's wake.
Interceptors
Dave
In the near future the US Government has created an elite team of soldiers specially trained for action in the event of a hostile alien encounter. A multi-national force, they are the last line of defense
High Voltage
Bulldog
After unknowingly robbing a money laundering operation the heist crew must avoid mobsters.
To the Ends of Time
Alexander
In a mythical kingdom, a young boy must fight time for the love of his princess and the future of his land.
Shootfighter II
Ruben
In this martial-arts actioner, Miami mobsters find themselves in mortal danger after an angry police chief hires the world's most vicious fighters and uses them to launch a city-wide vendetta
The Power Within
Raymond Vonn
Stan Dryer, a teen, afraid to even ask a girl to the prom, finds courage and extreme martial arts skill when he is given a ring by an old man he tried to save from a group of attackers. The ring is a mate to a ring stolen by a double dealing art thief who had been hired to steal it by a criminal mastermind who wanted it for its mystical powers.
Unlawful Passage
Howie
Erotic thriller about a rich couple who hires a new sailboat captain who's unbeknown to them also a drug smuggler.
Shootfighter: Fight to the Death
Ruben
Nick and Ruben are hoodwinked into a "shootfighter" (no-holds-barred, to the death) martial arts match by the evil Mr. Lee, who has a grudge against world shootfighter champ(and teacher of Nick and Ruben) Shingo.
Protect and Surf
Russell Cooper
A group of young police officers make up for the harsh realities of working on mean streets by sharing a dream house at the beach in California.
A Tiger's Tale
Randy
A young man falls for his girlfriend's mother.
The Karate Kid Part II
Johnny Lawrence
After discovering that his father is at death's door, Mr. Miyagi sets out to Japan, to see him with Daniel. Upon arriving, Miyagi must confront an old rival. Meanwhile, Daniel encounters a new love, and some new enemies.
Back to School
Chas
Self-made millionaire Thornton Melon decides to get a better education and enrolls at his son Jason's college. While Jason tries to fit in with his fellow students, Thornton struggles to gain his son's respect, giving way to hilarious antics.
National Lampoon's European Vacation
Jack
The Griswalds win a vacation to Europe on a game show, and so pack their bags for the continent. They do their best to catch the flavor of Europe, but they just don't know how to be be good tourists. Besides, they have trouble taking holidays in countries where they CAN speak the language.
Just One of the Guys
Greg Tolan
When Terry Griffith loses her high school's writing competition, she's convinced that it's because she's a girl. So Terry decides to change high schools and pose as a boy to prove her point. Her brother, Buddy, helps her pass as a guy so well that she is soon making friends with the boys at school, including the attractive Rick, who becomes her new best friend. But her gender-swapping makes things difficult when she falls in love with him.
The Karate Kid
Johnny Lawrence
Daniel, a fatherless teenager, arrives in Los Angeles and becomes the object of bullying by a gang of karate students when he strikes up a relationship with Ali, the gang leader’s ex-girlfriend, so Daniel asks Miyagi, a master of martial arts, to help him learn karate.