» characters
Daniel Larusso
The main character of The Karate Kid film series, with the exception of the fourth installment, The Next Karate Kid. LaRusso's mother is Lucille LaRusso. Some time before the events of the series, Daniel's father died of an unknown cause. This event is what caused Daniel and his mother to move to Los Angeles where Daniel became bullied by the Cobra Kai, a gang of karate students from the Cobra Kai karate dojo. After nearly being killed by the Cobra Kai's best student and gang leader Johnny Lawrence, Daniel is saved by his apartment's maintenance man, Keisuke Miyagi. After saving Daniel, Miyagi begins to teach him the ways of karate. Daniel later defeats Johnny at the "All Valley Karate Tournament". Daniel seems to have won the respect of the Cobras. In the later movies of The Karate Kid Series, Daniel eventually learns more from Mr. Miyagi about karate and faces new and more highly skilled enemies. He is portrayed by Ralph Macchio.