Ralph Macchio is a former teen heartthrob beloved for his role in The Karate Kid. He has appeared in movies, theater and on television. He is also a producer. And, would you believe he is now 60 years-old? He looks damned good for 60 -- but, he has those great Italian genes.
Macchio was born in Huntington, Long Island, New York, in 1961. He was practically a toddler when he started dancing lessons and was discovered while performing at a dance recital at age 16. From there he was quickly cast on TV’s Eight is Enough, and in the films The Outsiders and, most famously The Karate Kid where he originated the role of Daniel La Russo. Although he played a high school student, Macchio was 22 when he made The Karate Kid, and while his youthful appearance worked well in the film, it made it difficult for him to transition to adult parts.
So, roles dried up for the baby-faced actor, and his next big hit was 1992’s My Cousin Vinny. In 2011, he competed on Dancing with the Stars and took on new acting and producing roles. In 2017, it was announced that Macchio would star in a YouTube Red series that became the sequel to Karate Kid, co-starring William Zabka, who played Johnny Lawrence in the original film.
Macchio competed on the 12th season of Dancing with the Stars, ultimately placing fourth. The actor credits the show as being a shot in the arm to his career. Since then, he produced a series for the National Geographic Channel, American Gypsies, and starred in the film He’s Way More Famous Than You with Ben Stiller, Jesse Eisenberg and Vanessa Williams. The film was released at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. In April 2012, Macchio was cast as Psycho screenwriter Joe Stefano in the film Hitchcock, an Alfred Hitchcock biopic, starring Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins and Scarlett Johansson. And now Macchio has just come out with a new memoir (Waxing On) that seems destined to hit the bestseller list.
Macchio met his wife, Phyllis Fierro, through his grandmother when he was 15. They married in 1987 and have two children, Daniel and Julia. Macchio and his son, Daniel, made a series of shorts about safe driving for State Farm.
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