Early roles

Macchio was cast as Jeremy Andretti for a season in the television series Eight Is Enough.^[1] He next won the role of Johnny Cade in the 1983 film The Outsiders.^[1]

Karate Kid films

His work on The Outsiders helped him to win the role of Daniel LaRusso in the blockbuster 1984 film The Karate Kid. He continued to portray the character in two of its sequels, The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Karate Kid Part III (1989).^[1][7] In The Karate Kid, Macchio portrayed a "high school weakling turned bullybuster"^[8] who learns karate from his friend and mentor, Mr. Miyagi (portrayed by Pat Morita).^[9] Macchio's work in the Karate Kid series made him "stratospherically famous".^[7]

Later roles

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.^[1][10] 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.^[1] 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."^[11][12]

In 2005, Macchio played himself in the HBO series Entourage.^[1] Beginning in October 2008, he appeared in several episodes of the ABC Network television series Ugly Betty as Archie Rodriguez, a local politician who is Hilda's love interest.^[13] As of November 2008, Macchio was ranked No. 80 among VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars.^[14]

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.^[15] In February 2011, it was announced that Macchio would compete on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. He was eliminated during the semi-finals, placing fourth in the overall competition.^[16] Macchio appeared in Canadian band Danko Jones' music videos for "Had Enough" and "I Think Bad Thoughts".^[17]

In April 2012, Macchio was cast in the film Hitchcock, based on the non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. Macchio portrayed Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano.^[18]

Post-Karate Kid and Cobra Kai

Macchio 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.^[19][20]

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 in order to help his career, with frequent references to The Karate Kid.^[21] 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".^[22]

In 2013, he appeared in How I Met Your Mother. One of the main characters, Barney Stinson, asserts that Macchio's character, Daniel LaRusso, in The Karate Kid is not the real karate kid; instead, it's Johnny Lawrence, Daniel's nemesis in the film.^[23]

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 was sitting in his garage.^[24]

Beginning in 2018, Macchio reprised his role as Daniel LaRusso in Cobra Kai, an action comedy-drama series that began on YouTube Red and later moved to Netflix. Cobra Kai begins in the fall of 2017, and re-examines the "Miyagi-Verse" narrative from Johnny's point of view, beginning with his decision to reopen the Cobra Kai karate dojo, and the rekindling of his old rivalry with Daniel.^[25] Along with William Zabka, he is also a co-executive producer of the series.^[1][26]

Film

Television