belt by Paul Stuart; socks by The Armoury and shoes by Allen Edmonds. Photograph: Martin Schoeller/The Observer
For 30 years and more, whenever the American actor Ralph Macchio attends a sports event, the chances are that a live image of his face will flash up on the arena’s big screen. Macchio’s name will appear, always accompanied by a three-word explanation of who he used to be. “Guys, remember the Karate Kid from the 1980s? He’s here, he’s alive, he watches baseball, too!” Macchio is a fan of standup comedy. But if he sits in the audience at a show he must always be prepared to be singled out. “Hey Ralph, didn’t I see you waxing on and waxing off at a car wash? You guys might know Macchio from The Karate Kid trilogy. And if you don’t know him from those movies, then you don’t know him at all…”
A natural sweetheart, this 60-year-old has spent most of his life taking such indignities with good grace. In 2018, after decades of scant employment, existing in the public mind as a where-are-they-now curiosity, Macchio found his professional stoicism rewarded. He made a comeback, taking part in a TV show called Cobra Kai that successfully revived the Karate Kid story for a new generation of viewers on YouTube, then on Netflix. As recently as 2016, Macchio was able to mock himself at a charity event, revealing his secret to looking so young in middle age: “Not working.”
