Karate Kid What Happened To Daniel LaRussos Father

Karate Kid: What Happened To Daniel LaRusso’s Father

Daniel LaRusso found a karate sensei and father figure in Mr. Miyagi, but here’s what happened to his real father before the events of The Karate Kid.

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Karate Kid What Happened To Daniel LaRussos Father

Daniel LaRusso’s (Ralph Macchio) father died prior to the events of The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai. Along with his sensei, Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita), Daniel is the main protagonist of the first three Karate Kid movies, and LaRusso is also the co-lead of Cobra Kai with his arch-rival since high school, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). Daniel’s birth father was out of the picture well before the LaRussos moved to Los Angeles from Newark, New Jersey, and much of the teenager’s surly attitude can likely be attributed to the absence of his father.

At the start of The Karate Kid, Daniel was forced by his mother Lucille (Randee Heller) to move across the country for a fresh start in the summer of 1984. Soon after arriving in the San Fernando Valley, Daniel made lifelong enemies with the students of the Cobra Kai karate dojo. Daniel and the Cobra Kai feuded for weeks, with Johnny especially hating Daniel for dating his ex-girlfriend, Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue). LaRusso was regularly outnumbered and beaten up by the black and yellow-clad karate gang until he was befriended by Mr. Miyagi, the quiet handyman of his apartment complex who was secretly a karate master. Under Mr. Miyagi’s training, Daniel became proficient enough in karate to win the All-Valley Karate Tournament; LaRusso defeated Johnny in the finals but this turned out to just be the start of a seemingly endless series of conflicts that spanned two more Karate Kid movies and, soon, three seasons of Cobra Kai.

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However, Daniel’s father (who was never named in the Karate Kid movies) died of an unrevealed terminal illness when his son was only 8 years old. Daniel was born on December 18, 1966, so his father died in 1974, a decade before the events of the first Karate Kid movie. As Daniel told Miyagi, his strongest memory of his childhood was of his father’s death and that he was proud to have been by his bedside to say goodbye to his dad. Afterward, Lucille LaRusso did her best to raise Daniel; they moved across the country so she could earn more money working with computers and give Daniel a better life in the sunshine and beaches of Southern California. Daniel also took karate lessons at the local YMCA in New Jersey, but that was nothing compared to what he learned from Mr. Miyagi.

In many ways, The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai saga is about father figures who don’t measure up. Mr. Miyagi was the exception who proved to be the best friend and mentor Daniel could have ever asked for, and the wise old sensei later became the teacher of Julie Pierce (Hilary Swank) in The Next Karate Kid. Miyagi didn’t quite replace Daniel’s father but they had a unique mentor-student relationship where Miyagi’s often cryptic wisdom taught Daniel valuable life lessons as well as karate. But Miyagi is the rare case of a positive father figure in The Karate Kid franchise.

Cobra Kai season 1 revealed that Johnny’s stepfather was the old, rich, and abusive Sid Weinberg (Ed Asner). Johnny joined the Cobra Kai dojo as an escape and he wound up being trained by John Kreese (Martin Kove), who was arguably an even worse role model. Miyagi enjoyed a warm relationship with his own father, but spent decades away from him when he moved to America rather than fight his best friend, Sato (Danny Kamekona). Sato was also a bad example to his nephew Chozen (Yuji Okomoto). In The Karate Kid Part III, Daniel had a falling out with Miyagi and was tricked by the evil Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), who briefly became LaRusso’s mentor and ersatz father.

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For his part, growing up without his father but with Mr. Miyagi as his mentor and best friend is what fuels Daniel’s devotion to his children, especially his daughter and karate pupil Samantha (Mary Mouser). Daniel also became a father figure to Johnny’s son Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan). To his credit, Johnny also rose to the occasion and turned into a positive father figure to Miguel Diaz (Xolo Mariduena) in Cobra Kai.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/karate-kid-daniel-larusso-dad-death-what-happened/

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