Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4800
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Martin Kove represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 54 years in, and Martin is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Martin Kove appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Martin. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, mystery, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Josh Greenbaum, Ash Avildsen, Quentin Tarantino and others, Martin Kove helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) as 'Bounty Law' - Sheriff · The Karate Kid (1984) as Kreese · More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story (2021) as Self
Career snapshot
Ranked #4800 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
1972–2026
Career length
54 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Average Nutevio score
5.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Most frequent director
John G. Avildsen
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With John G. Avildsen
Most common genre
Action
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 47m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.7
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
6.7 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Wyatt Earp — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.7
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Death Race 2000, The Last House on the Left.
Most productive era
2020s
10 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.63 films | 6.71 film | 7.61 film | 6.82 films |
| Action | 6.31 film | 6.64 films | — | 5.91 film | 6.22 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.81 film | — | 6.82 films | — |
| Comedy | 6.31 film | — | — | 7.61 film | 5.34 films |
| Crime | 6.21 film | — | — | 5.91 film | — |
| Romance | — | 6.51 film | — | — | — |
| Horror | 6.21 film | — | — | 5.91 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1972The Last House on the Left
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Deputy.
Highest rated performance
2019Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
7.6 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2021More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026The Dink
The current state of the argument, as Mitch.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
20 of 20 films
as 'Bounty Law' - Sheriff
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Kreese
Directed by John G. Avildsen
as Ericson
Directed by George P. Cosmatos
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Self
More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story (2021)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Self gives Martin Kove a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
'Bounty Law' - Sheriff
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
Performance score7.4
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. 'Bounty Law' - Sheriff is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Kreese
The Karate Kid (1984)
Performance score7.3
The Karate Kid asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Kreese is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Preacher
A Gunfighter's Deal (2025)
Performance score7.1
A Gunfighter's Deal asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Preacher is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Self
Start here. More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story is the clearest statement of what Martin Kove does — accessible, 90 minutes, and rated 7.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Martin at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Karate Kid (1984)
A deliberate change of key after More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
Keeps the action register of The Karate Kid but asks for a colder reading of it.
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
Keeps the thriller register of Rambo: First Blood Part II but asks for a colder reading of it.
A Gunfighter's Deal (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
John G. Avildsen
Director
3 films together
Notably The Karate Kid
Wes Craven
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last House on the Left
Paul Bartel
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Race 2000
George P. Cosmatos
Director
1 film together
Notably Rambo: First Blood Part II
Lawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Wyatt Earp
Joe Begos
Director
1 film together
Notably VFW
Nick Lyon
Director
1 film together
Notably D-Day
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Ash Avildsen
Director
1 film together
Notably Queen of the Ring
Josh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dink
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
John G. Avildsen
Director
3 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Karate KidQuentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Once Upon a Time... in HollywoodGeorge P. Cosmatos
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rambo: First Blood Part IIAsh Avildsen
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Queen of the RingLawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wyatt EarpJosh Greenbaum
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The DinkPaul Bartel
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death Race 2000Wes Craven
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last House on the LeftJoe Begos
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
VFWNick Lyon
Director
1 film together · 4.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
D-DaySix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Karate Kid
as Kreese
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Karate Kid Part II
as Kreese
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
as 'Bounty Law' - Sheriff
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
as 'Bounty Law' - Sheriff
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story
as Self
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Martin Kove has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
54 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Action Legend
Awarded
8 catalogue titles in action, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
as 'Bounty Law' - Sheriff
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
as 'Bounty Law' - Sheriff
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Karate Kid Part II
as Kreese
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Dante's Inferni
as Speaker – 8th Circle: Bertran De Born
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Karate Kid
as Kreese
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Far Haven
as Ambrose Masse
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Karate Kid Part II
as Kreese
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Dink
as Mitch
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Have your say
Community
Which Martin Kove performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
