Thomas Ian Griffith

Thomas Ian Griffith (born March 18, 1962) is an American actor, screenwriter and martial artist. He is best known for portraying Terry Silver in the 1989 film The Karate Kid Part III, a role he reprised in the fourth and fifth seasons of the television series Cobra Kai.
Early life
Griffith was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Mary Ann (née O'Neil), who worked at a dance studio, and Thomas Joseph Griffith. Griffith attended South Catholic High School in Hartford. He then studied at the College of the Holy Cross where he was a dean's list student before leaving after his junior year to "make it" as an actor in New York.
Career
Griffith made his screen-acting debut on the soap opera Another World as Catlin Ewing, whom he played from 1984 to 1987. During this time, he met and dated his co-star, onscreen love interest and future wife, Mary Page Keller.
Griffith became obsessed with taekwondo while in high school and earned a black belt when he was 18. His knowledge of taekwondo helped him land his first feature film: 1989's The Karate Kid Part III, in which he played Terry Silver, a rival martial arts expert who influences Daniel LaRusso against his friend and mentor, Mr. Miyagi.
After his breakout role in The Karate Kid Part III, Griffith was briefly positioned to be Hollywood's next big action star, even scoring a three-picture deal with New Line Cinema. During the 1990s, he starred in a series of direct-to-video and low-budget theatrically released films, most notably Ulterior Motives, Excessive Force (both of which Griffith also helped write and produce), and Crackerjack. He elicited frequent comparisons to actors like Jean Claude van Damme and Steven Seagal, but these films received mixed to negative reviews and Griffith ultimately never reached their level of success.
Through the late 1990s and 2000s, Griffith transitioned to smaller projects and roles, working almost exclusively direct-to-video. He did, however, star in the film Hollow Point alongside Tia Carrere as DEA agent Max Parrish and collaborate with director John Carpenter. He played head vampire Jan Valek in Carpenter's 1998 film Vampires and co-created the comic book series Asylum, together with Carpenter and producer Sandy King.
In 1999, he starred in the TV movie Secret of Giving with Reba McEntire; earlier in 1999, he had appeared in McEntire's video for the song "What Do You Say." In 2002, Griffith appeared in the film XXX, in which he portrayed Agent Jim McGrath.
In 2007, Griffith retired from acting altogether to pursue screenwriting. From 2013 to 2017, he periodically wrote and worked as a story editor for the NBC television series Grimm and became a co-producer in 2015. He and his wife, Mary Page Keller, also collaborated to write the sixth episode of the dramedy series Dolly Parton's Heartstrings in 2019, as well as an episode for Netflix series Virgin River.
In 2021 and 2022, Griffith came out of his retirement from acting to reprise the role of Terry Silver in the fourth and fifth seasons of Cobra Kai.
Personal life
Griffith has been married to his former Another World costar Mary Page Keller since 1991 and the pair has two sons together. He also has two sisters, Colleen and Mary Beth.
He holds a black belt in taekwondo and kenpo karate.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable"
|- bgcolor="#B0C4DE" align="center"
! Year
! Film
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1989
| The Karate Kid Part III
| Terry Silver
|
|-
| 1990
| Rock Hudson
| Rock Hudson
| TV movie
|-
| 1992
| Ulterior Motives
| Jack Blaylock
|
|-
| 1993
| Excessive Force
| Detective Terry McCain
|
|-
| 1994
| Crackerjack
| Jack Wild
|
|-
| 1994
| Blood of the Innocent
| Detective Frank Wusharsky
|
|-
| 1996
| Hollow Point
| Max Parrish
|
|-
| 1997
| Behind Enemy Lines
| CIA Agent Mike Weston
|
|-
| 1997
| Kull the Conqueror
| General Taligaro
|
|-
| 1997
| The Guardian
| The Guardian
| TV movie
|-
| 1998
| John Carpenter's Vampires
| Jan Valek
|
|-
| 1999
| The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax
| Jack Farrell
| TV movie
|-
| 1999
| Avalanche
| Neal Meekin
|
|-
| 1999
| The Secret of Giving
| Harry Withers
| TV movie
|-
| 2000
| A Vision of Murder: The Story of Donielle
| Doug Brister
| TV movie
|-
| 2000
| For the Cause
| Evans
|
|-
| 2001
| High Adventure
| Chris Quatermain
|
|-
| 2002
| Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder
| Cornelius Loudermilk
| TV movie
|-
| 2002
| Black Point
| Gus Travis
|
|-
| 2002
| XXX
| NSA Agent Jim McGrath
|
|-
| 2003
| Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision
| Brandon Miller
|
|-
| 2005
| The Pirate's Curse
| Captain Jeffery Thorpe
|
|-
|2007
|The Kidnapping
|Cash
|TV movie
|-
| 2020
| Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square
| None
| Consulting Producer
|}
Television
Video gamesCobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising'' (2022) as Terry Silver (voice role)
References
External links
1962 births
Living people
Male actors from Hartford, Connecticut
Age controversies
American male film actors
American male soap opera actors
American male television actors
American male karateka
American Kenpo practitioners
American male taekwondo practitioners