Sean Kanan turned considered one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors after enjoying Daniel LaRusso’s rival and tormentor Mike Barnes in The Karate Kid Part III in 1989. Because it seems, the actor’s profession nearly got here to an early finish when he suffered a near-fatal harm whereas capturing the film.
Sean Kanan performed Mike Barnes in ‘The Karate Kid III’
In The Karate Kid Part III, Kanan portrayed Mike Barnes, a skillful and brutal karate fighter who competed in competitions across the nation and gained greater than he misplaced. Dubbed the “Karate’s Bad Boy,” Barnes was Terry Silver’s employed gun, and was picked out of a karate journal for his popularity as a constant winner and ruthless competitor.
Silver made Barnes his prime Cobra Kai pupil whereas pretending to be Daniel LaRusso’s buddy and providing him a 50% half in his plan to increase Cobra Kai. All of the whereas, Silver was manipulating LaRusso in an try to drive a wedge between him and his sensei, Mr. Miyagi.
Barnes complied with Silver’s orders to combat soiled and hurt LaRusso throughout their championship bout on the 1985 All Valley Beneath 18 Karate Match. Nevertheless, when the combat got here all the way down to the final level, LaRusso scored on Barnes to win, ruining Terry Silver’s plan.
The actor almost died from an harm he acquired whereas working on ‘The Karate Kid Part III’
After Season 5 of Cobra Kai premiered, Kanan gave an interview to The Daily Mail the place he spoke a couple of near-fatal harm he suffered whereas filming The Karate Kid Part III. In accordance with his account, it began with a boring ache in a single leg that he initially dismissed as typical muscle stress. Nevertheless, after it induced him to go out, a physician discovered that he was bleeding internally.
“I passed out in the Dunes Casino, and it turned out that the pain in my leg was internal bleeding, and it was the blood dripping down on my femoral artery. They said, ‘We don’t know if we can save your life — we’re going to try’”, Kanan defined.
Kanan not solely made it by way of the operation, however he particularly requested for the surgeon to keep away from slicing any of his belly muscle mass in order that he may heal extra rapidly. This turned out to be needed as a result of a studio rep advised Kanan that his function could be given to another person if it took him greater than what Kanan remembers as 12 days to get higher.
With director John Avildsen’s assist, Kanan continued performing his personal stunts regardless of his harm. “I wound up being able to do all my own stunts with the exception of, I think, one driving stunt I didn’t do,” he stated. Kanan’s 15-inch scar runs the size of his stomach to this present day. Kanan says he wouldn’t quit one of many “most defining moments” of his life — his brush with demise in The Karate Kid — for something.
Sean Kanan reprised his function as Mike Barnes in ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 5
After his success within the martial arts film, Kanan went on to grow to be a family title due to his main appearances on daytime cleaning soap operas like The Younger and the Stressed, Normal Hospital, and The Daring and the Stunning. When the Karate Kid spinoff collection Cobra Kai premiered in 2018 on YouTube after which transferred to Netflix, Kanan anticipated he could be invited to hitch the solid. And it lastly occurred for Season 5.
Kanan acquired to play Mike Barnes once more in just a few episodes of the fifth season of Cobra Kai. Nevertheless, the Barnes who exhibits up in two episodes of Season 5 isn’t the identical one who was as soon as known as “Karate’s Bad Boy.”
In Episode 3, LaRusso hunts down Barnes, suspecting that he’s as soon as once more working with Silver, solely to find that he has turned his life round since his Nineteen Eighties humiliation on the event. Barnes finally discovered love and settled all the way down to run a furnishings retailer. Sadly, Silver finally ends up burning down the shop, prompting Barnes to return for revenge within the season finale. Cobra Kai’s 5 seasons are all at present obtainable to observe on Netflix.