
John Kreese (2 October 1946-) was an American karate instructor who founded the Cobra Kai karate school and served as its sensei from 1975 to 1985 and from 2018 to 2019.
Biography[]

Kreese in the Army
John Kreese was born in 1946, and his mother committed suicide and his father left him, causing him to be bullied as a child. He enlisted in the US Army in 1965, and he was deployed to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, befriending Terry Silver in the process. His commanding officer, Captain George Turner, taught him various martial arts forms, including Korean Tang Soo Do. He and his squad were captured during a foray into North Vietnam in 1968, and they held captive until 1969, when they were forced to fight in one-on-one deathmatches over a snakepit. Kreese killed Turner during one of the fights, and a US air raid allowed Kreese and his comrade Silver to escape. Kreese went on to join the Green Berets and received a field commission, rising to the rank of Captain in the 5th Special Forces Group. From 1970 to 1972, he won the title of Karate Champion of the US Army.
After returning to the United States, Kreese returned to the San Fernando Valley and formed the Cobra Kai dojo in 1975 to train local children in Tang Soo Do under the more marketable name of karate, a Chinese-inspired Japanese martial art. Silver continued to run his family's business while financially supporting Cobra Kai, and Kreese taught his students to show "no mercy" to their opponents. In 1984, Kreese was infuriated when his students were defeated by Okinawan karate master Nariyoshi Miyagi's pupil Daniel LaRusso in the All-Valley Karate Tournament, and, after he assaulted his student Johnny Lawrence for losing the final round, Kreese was abandoned by his students. In 1985, Kreese enlisted the help of Silver in re-establishing Cobra Kai while Kreese, at Silver's behest, went on vacation to Tahiti to recuperate. Kreese, Silver, and the under-18 national karate champion Mike Barnes later assaulted LaRusso before the 1985 All-Valley Karate Tournament, leading to Cobra Kai being banned from the tournament in perpetuity.
Kreese was forced into homelessness after Cobra Kai's dissolution, and he failed a psychological test when he attempted to re-enlist in the Army; he later lied about his later career and claimed that he had served in the Gulf War and the Afghanistan War. In 2018, Kreese revisited the Cobra Kai dojo after Lawrence reopened it, and he apologized to Lawrence for beating him up 34 years earlier, upon which Lawrence allowed Kreese to attend his classes. Kreese was expelled from the dojo after Lawrence caught him teaching Cobra Kai's brutal old ways to his students, but he convinced the landlord Armand Zakarian to sign the dojo over to him while Lawrence was visiting a dying friend, and Kreese assumed sole ownership of the dojo and took over most of Lawrence's disaffected students. Kreese found himself at odds with LaRusso again when he attempted to compete with the Miyagi-Do dojo; LaRusso and Lawrence reconciled and allied against Kreese, Kreese promised to shut down Cobra Kai if it lost that year's All-Valley Karate Tournament, and he persuaded Silver to rig the tournament in Cobra Kai's favor with bribes. However, Silver, considering his debt to Kreese fulfilled and tired of his abuses, persuaded former Cobra Kai student "Stingray" to falsely accuse Kreese of aggravated assault and attempted murder in exchange for letting Stingray rejoin Cobra Kai; in reality, Silver was the one who had attacked Stingray. Kreese was promptly arrested, while Silver was left with full control of Cobra Kai.