Actor Martin Kove Comes Out With New Cigar
Veteran actor Martin Kove has been smoking cigars for more than 25 years. Now, he’s coming out with a brand of his own.
Kove, 79, is best known as the menacing villain John Kreese from The Karate Kid series of movies as well as the hit Netflix series “Cobra Kai,” where he often appears with a cigar clamped in his hard-set jaw. “Sweep the leg,” he famously said in the original film, instructing his student to play dirty and target an opponent’s weakness. “Mercy is for the weak,” his character advises.
Off camera, Kove is charming and pleasant, the polar opposite of his character. Cigars are among his favorite things. “It’s the height of my level of relaxation,” he says of his cigar smoking.
His new brand is called The Prodigal Son, named for an TV series. The cigar is being made in partnership with Paul DiSilvio, founder of La Casa Grande Cigar Factory in the Bronx, New York, and Sanj Patel, known for his SP1014 brand of smokes. (DiSilvio also worked with actor Chazz Palminteri on A Bronx Tale Cigar.) The cigars are rolled in the Dominican Republic and they will come in one size, a Toro measuring 6 inches long by 52 ring. Initially, they will only be available at a handful of retailers in late June, with a broader release expected in the fall. The cigars are expected to retail for around $14 apiece.
