50 Facts About Daniel LaRusso

Daniel LaRusso is a fictional character and the protagonist of The Karate Kid franchise.

Daniel LaRusso is the protagonist of The Karate Kid's film trilogy and one of the two protagonists in its spin-off series Cobra Kai.

Daniel LaRusso was born in Newark, New Jersey on December 18,1966, into an Italian-American family.

When he was eight, his father David LaRusso died after a 2-year battle with stomach cancer.

Shortly after moving to California, Daniel LaRusso meets and starts a rivalry with Johnny Lawrence, the two-time winner of the All Valley Under-18 Karate Championship after the latter mistakened him for having a fling towards his ex-girlfriend Ali Mills.

Luckily for Daniel LaRusso, after being jumped by Johnny and his friends, he met Mr Miyagi, the maintenance man at his apartment, who becomes his karate mentor and a perfect friend of his, as well as a father figure.

Daniel LaRusso ends up defeating Chozen in a fight to the death, although instead of killing him, he obeys Mr Miyagi's teachings and instead shows mercy to Chozen.

Thirty-three years later, Daniel LaRusso becomes the owner of a successful car dealership in Southern California and is married to his co-owner, Amanda, with whom they have two children named Samantha and Anthony.

Daniel's interest in karate reignites after LaRusso learns of the return of the Cobra Kai dojo, now run by Lawrence.

Widowed mother Lucille LaRusso uproots her only child, Daniel, from their home in New Jersey and moves them both to the South Seas Apartments in Reseda, California.

Daniel LaRusso is invited by his new neighbor, Freddy Fernandez, to a beach party, where he meets Ali Mills.

Daniel LaRusso is initially upset with Mr Miyagi over the arrangement, but Mr Miyagi assures him that with the proper karate training, he will no longer have to worry about Cobra Kai.

However, Mr Miyagi has Daniel LaRusso do mundane chores at his rest house such as waxing his classic cars, sanding the wood floors, painting the fence, and painting the house.

Mr Miyagi allows Daniel LaRusso to choose one of his classic cars as a gift on his 18th birthday and a reward for getting his driver's license, with Daniel LaRusso choosing a yellow 1947 Ford Super De Luxe convertible.

Bobby reluctantly delivers an illegal kick to Daniel LaRusso's knee, getting himself disqualified while Johnny looks at Kreese in disgust.

Just before Johnny is declared the winner by default, Ali informs the tournament announcer that Daniel LaRusso will fight in the final round.

Daniel LaRusso celebrates the victory as Mr Miyagi looks on, proud of his student.

Surprised, Mr Miyagi asks what happened, and Daniel LaRusso angrily blames Ali for the damage and says that they broke up because she is in love with "a football player from UCLA".

Later, when Daniel LaRusso learns that Mr Miyagi is going to Okinawa to visit his dying father, he uses his college fund to go with him.

Later, Daniel LaRusso meets Kumiko, a teenager who aspires to move to Tokyo and pursue a career in dancing.

Mr Miyagi invites Daniel LaRusso to stay with him for a while, and Daniel LaRusso uses the rest of his college fund to help his mentor set up a bonsai tree nursery.

Daniel LaRusso befriends Jessica Andrews, who manages the pottery shop across the street.

Daniel LaRusso receives an invitation to defend his championship title at the next All Valley Under-18 Karate Championships, but Mr Miyagi advises him to ignore it, seeing no point in the competition.

However, Daniel LaRusso is confronted by the prodigious and undefeated karateka Mike Barnes, who threatens Daniel LaRusso into defending his title and steals the shop's bonsai trees.

Little does Daniel LaRusso know that this is an elaborate scheme devised by Kreese and Cobra Kai to exact revenge on him by physically weakening him and having him suffer defeat at Barnes' hands.

Silver's methods start to corrupt Daniel LaRusso, who becomes more aggressive and short-tempered as well as alienated from Miyagi and Jessica.

Daniel LaRusso confronts Silver and tells him that he no longer wishes to defend his title, after which Silver reveals his scheme.

Daniel LaRusso uses Silver and Kreese's tactic of scoring a point, then losing it with an illegal move until they reach the sudden death round.

Daniel LaRusso, unaware that Sam was a passenger when her friends accidentally caused the wreck, offers to fix his car for free, considering Johnny an old friend.

Unaware that Robby is Johnny's son, Daniel LaRusso takes him in as his karate student after Louie's antics inadvertently lead Robby to visiting Daniel LaRusso's house.

Daniel LaRusso opens the Miyagi-Do dojo and offers his lessons for free, threatening Cobra Kai's business.

Daniel LaRusso allows Robby to move into his home after the utilities are shut off in Robby's apartment and Robby is evicted from his apartment due to missed bills from his mother Shannon abandoning him by going on vacation to Mexico with her boyfriend and proceeds to train him and Sam together.

Unfortunately, Daniel LaRusso has trouble acquiring students, most of whom are not receptive to the chore-based muscle memory training style and defensive techniques he used himself.

Daniel LaRusso tries to be the bigger man after Cobra Kai upstages their demonstration at the local Valley Fest, even going so far as to refusing to make use of footage of him dispatching three purse-snatchers caught on Robby's phone.

Daniel LaRusso takes on Demetri as a student, which proves challenging at first due to Demetri's constant whining and desire to take shortcuts.

Daniel LaRusso finds Robby at Shannon's rehabilitation facility seeking comfort and support from her, and has the police take Robby into custody in order to lessen his sentence.

Sam's spirits are improved, and Daniel LaRusso later teaches her a new technique by sparring with her using bo staffs.

Daniel LaRusso saves Johnny just as Kreese is trying to strangle him and takes on Kreese in a one-on-one fight.

Kreese, Johnny, and Daniel LaRusso agree to temporarily cease hostilities in order to train for the tournament and come to a deal: if Cobra Kai wins the next All-Valley tournament, Daniel LaRusso and Johnny will stop teaching karate, but if Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang win, Kreese will leave and shut down Cobra Kai.

Daniel LaRusso is devastated to find that Robby has joined Cobra Kai after finishing his juvenile hall sentence and that Kreese is grooming him to be one of his star pupils alongside Tory.

However, the two eventually reach an agreement to teach each other their own style of karate, with Daniel LaRusso fighting and defeating a group of hockey players who were objectifying Amanda.

Daniel LaRusso's cousin Vanessa, who is a child psychologist, deduces that Daniel LaRusso and Amanda's lack of attention towards Anthony is the source of his problems.

Daniel LaRusso enters his students in the All-Valley Tournament alongside Eagle Fang and Cobra Kai.

Daniel LaRusso begins his scheme to take down Cobra Kai with the help of Chozen, but Johnny declines to assist as he wants to focus on his own personal issues with Miguel and Robby.

Amanda eventually reconciles with Daniel LaRusso after learning more about Daniel LaRusso's negative history with Silver in 1985 from her cousin Jessica Andrews.

Robby, who has rejoined Miyagi-Do, reveals just how much Daniel LaRusso's teachings had meant to him, something that he had finally understood when Robby had become a mentor himself to his friend Kenny, only to watch him become corrupted by Silver.

Johnny and Chozen agree to help Barnes, while Daniel LaRusso refuses to help in his drunken state and subsequently ends up stranded in the middle of nowhere after Barnes drives the limo with Johnny and Chozen to confront Silver.

Daniel LaRusso gets picked up by Stingray, who has a change of heart and agrees to help take down Silver by giving him a ride to the Cobra Kai dojo.

Daniel LaRusso, as conceived in the original films, is an iconic hero.

In 2018, Daniel LaRusso was inducted into the Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame.