Ralph Macchio

Ralph George Macchio Jr. (/ˈmɑːtʃioʊ/, [ˈmakkjɔ]; born November 4, 1961) is an American actor known for his role as Daniel LaRusso in three Karate Kid films andCobra Kai, a sequel television series. He is also known for his roles as Johnny Cade in The Outsiders, Jeremy Andretti in Eight Is Enough, Bill Gambini in My Cousin Vinny, Eugene Martone in Crossroads, and Archie Rodriguez in Ugly Betty.

Macchio was born in Huntington, New York. He is the son of Rosalie (née DeSantis) and Ralph Macchio, Sr., who owned a ranch. His father is of half Italian and half Greek descent, and his mother is of Italian ancestry. In a 1980 screen test, Macchio stated his family is from Naples.

Macchio began tap dancing lessons at the age of 3 and was discovered when he was 16. He was then cast as Jeremy Andretti in the television series Eight Is Enough. After Eight is Enough ended, he won the role of Johnny Cade in the 1983 film, The Outsiders. It was this role that led him to be cast as Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 film, Karate Kid and two of its sequels, The Karate Kid Part II and The Karate Kid Part III. Macchio appeared in the 1986 film Crossroads, portraying music student Eugene Martone. Also in 1986, Macchio starred in Cuba and His Teddy Bear on Broadway, alongside Robert DeNiro. In 1992, he starred opposite Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei in the hit comedy My Cousin Vinny, playing Billy Gambini, who was wrongfully accused of murder while passing through a small Alabama town. In 1996, Macchio performed the lead role of J. Pierrepont Finch in the U.S. tour revival of the 1962 Tony Award-winning musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and received positive reviews. Referring to his performance as a chorister in a high school production of the same musical, Macchio said, "I was known as the 'Dancing Kid,' not that I was all that great. But I had been dancing since the age of three, taking lessons at the June Claire School of Dance in Babylon, Long Island."

In 2005, Macchio played himself in the HBO series, Entourage.He appeared in the 2007 music video for the song "Sweep the Leg" by No More Kings as a caricature of himself and Daniel from The Karate Kid. In 2008, he appeared in a VitaminWater commercial that featured NASCAR driver Carl Edwards. Macchio was depicted as Edwards' "spiritual advisor" and dressed in his Karate Kid clothes. Since October 2008, he has appeared in several episodes of the ABC Network television series Ugly Betty as Archie Rodriguez, a local politician, with a semi-regular role as Hilda's love interest on the show. As of November 2008, Macchio was ranked No. 80 among VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars.

In June 2010, Macchio appeared in Funny or Die's online short, "Wax On, F*ck Off", in which his loved ones stage an intervention to turn the former child star from a well-adjusted family man into an addict besieged with tabloid scandal, all in order to help his career. During the video Macchio reacts to seeing a poster for the 2010 Karate Kid remake. A recurring joke in the sketch is that Macchio is confused for an adolescent. The short was lauded by TV Guide's Bruce Fretts, who referred to the video as "sidesplitting" and "comic gold". On September 20, 2010, Macchio played the adult Carl Morelli in a staged reading of the Charles Messina play A Room of My Own presented by the Bleecker Street Theater Company. In February 2011 it was announced he would compete on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. He was eliminated during the semi-finals, placing fourth in the overall competition. Macchio appeared in Canadian band Danko Jones' music videos for "Had Enough" and "I Think Bad Thoughts", also featuring Elijah Wood and Jena Malone. In April 2012, Macchio was cast in the film Hitchcock, based on the non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, co-starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Jessica Biel and Toni Collette, and directed by Sacha Gervasi. Macchio portrays Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano. In 2013, he appeared in How I Met Your Mother. The main character, Barney Stinson, asserts that Macchio's character, Daniel LaRusso, in The Karate Kid isn't the real karate kid; instead, it's Johnny Lawrence, Daniel's nemesis in the film. In the 8th-season episode The Bro Mitzvah, Macchio is invited to Barney's bachelor party, although Barney is disappointed in the surprise, expecting actor William Zabka, the "real Karate Kid". For the duration of the episode, the characters note the similarities between Barney and Macchio, by which Barney is disgusted. At the end of the night, the clown hired for the party's entertainment reveals himself to be Zabka. From February to March 2016, Macchio co-starred with Mario Cantone in the Off-Broadway production A Room of My Own, after having read the play in 2010 and 2014.

Macchio is currently reprising his role as Daniel LaRusso in Cobra Kai, an action comedy-drama YouTube Premium series presented in an episodic storytelling format, that began in 2018. He is also a co-executive producer of the series, along with William Zabka. The series is set 34 years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament and revolves around a down-and-out Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) who – seeking to get his life back on track, and obtain redemption for his defeat in the 1984 tournament – reopens the Cobra Kai dojo. This reignites his rivalry with a now-successful LaRusso, who has been struggling to maintain balance in his life without the guidance of his now-deceased mentor, Mr. Miyagi.

Macchio was introduced to his wife, Phyllis Fierro, by his grandmother when he was 15. They married on April 5, 1987, and have two children, Julia (born 1992) and Daniel (born 1996). Fierro is a nurse practitioner.

At a celebration of the 30th anniversary of The Karate Kid at the Japanese American National Museum in 2014, Macchio said that the yellow 1947 Ford convertible his character Daniel receives from Miyagi in the first film is sitting in his garage.

DJ Q-Ball of the Bloodhound Gang released a song on his MySpace called "The Ralph Macchio Memoirs". Poetry slam artist Big Poppa E references Ralph Macchio in his performance poem The Wussy Boy Manifesto. Nerdcore artist MC Frontalot mentions him in his song, "Braggadocio".

Macchio's character in the Karate Kid film inspired the "Daniel" song by English singer Bat for Lashes; the front cover of the single shows Bat for Lashes with Daniel LaRusso's face painted on her back.

The song "Ralph Macchio" by Norwegian singer Annie is about her crush on Macchio in her youth over a 1980s-themed pop track.

In season three of the Netflix television show Stranger Things, characters Max Mayfield and Eleven gush over Macchio's character, Daniel LaRusso from the Karate Kid film, in a teen magazine.

In the Parks and Recreation episode "The Master Plan", Andy Dwyer, unable to remember the proper name of Jean-Ralphio Saperstein, declares "That Ralph Macchio guy's a total douche" after Jean-Ralphio flirts with April Ludgate.