[4] His best-known roles include Terry Silver in John G. Avildsen's 1989 martial arts film The Karate Kid Part III, which he later reprised in the fourth through sixth seasons of the Netflix television series Cobra Kai (2021–2025), as well as voicing his character in the video game Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising (2022);[5] head vampire Jan Valek in John Carpenter's 1998 neo-Western action horror film Vampires; warrior Taligaro in Raffaella De Laurentiis' 1997 sword and sorcery picture Kull the Conqueror; recurring character Larry Sawyer in the first season of The WB's teen drama series One Tree Hill (2004); and Catlin Ewing in NBC's soap opera Another World, which he helmed from 1984–1987.
[8][9] From critics and journalists, he received frequent comparisons to actors like Jean Claude van Damme, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Jeff Speakman, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, and even Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, and Mickey Rourke.
[38] His sophomore year, he joined the school's drama club, The South Catholic Players, when it needed a last-minute replacement piano accompanist for a production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
[40] In a 2021 interview, Griffith stated that he originally attended College of the Holy Cross, where he majored in English and music, but transferred to New York University between his sophomore and junior year after he was cast in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
[39] In the summer of 1980, between his sophomore and junior year at College of the Holy Cross,[53] Griffith made his Broadway debut when he replaced featured player Tom Cashin in the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, under the direction of Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune at the 46th Street Theatre.
[77] As early as July 1986, news circulated that Griffith, although playing a popular character on Another World, was not going to renew his contract once it ended in January 1987, and the importance of his role was gradually diminished in the writing of the show.
[80][81] The 22-hour program was a fundraiser for research into children's diseases and featured such stars as Tony Bennett, James Brown, Ginette Reno, Daniel Lavoie, Joe Bocan, Ranee Lee, and Édith Butler.
[80][83] Reviewing their much-publicized set for The Montreal Gazette, a critic wrote "As for Thomas Ian Griffin [sic] and Mary Page Keller of Another World, they were downright livid and for good reason.
[41][39][89] In 1988, Griffith had a guest role on NBC's prime-time television crime drama series In the Heat of the Night; he appeared in the Peter Levin-directed two-part season two premiere episode "Don't Look Back," which aired on December 4, 1988.
Griffith plays the role of Roger Totland, Amber Twine's (Patti D'Arbanville) attorney who convinces her to sever ties with the protagonist, Vinnie Terranova (Ken Wahl), by seducing and wining and dining her, in an attempt to profit from the sale of her company and real estate.
[95][1] Producer Frank Konigsberg later told newspaper reporters that he felt it was more important to cast an actor who could play Hudson's tortured spirit than an exact lookalike,[1] and that Griffith "has the presence, the height and the build of Rock.
[98][88][99] The film, when initially scheduled to start shooting in late November 1988 (before being delayed when Griffith was cast in The Karate Kid Part III), was a mystery-drama flic about a poet who works at a strip club.
[13] Excessive Force was given a $5.5 million budget[13] and John Hess was hired to direct, while Griffith produced, co-choreographed (with Bobby Bass), and starred in the film; he can also be seen playing several jazz tunes on the piano.
[8] From critics and journalists, he received frequent comparisons to actors like Jean Claude van Damme, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Jeff Speakman, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, and even Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, and Mickey Rourke.
[142] The thirty-minute made-for-video film co-starred Keller (who also co-produced) as Kirby the clown, along with Meltzer's pupils, the Kick Time Kids, showing a basic skills non-aggressive, non-contact program.
The story deals with a barbarian, Kull (Sorbo), who wins the throne of Valusian in a sword fight, much to the dismay of Taligaro (Griffith) and others who each feel they are the rightful inheritors of that position, and who attempt to kill him.
[153][154] The premise of the show, which was written and directed by Rob Cohen, had Griffith starring as Ray Angelotti (known as The Guardian Angel), an ex-thief and martial arts expert with a sixth-degree Kenpo Karate black belt, who comes out of prison determined to right wrongs and make up for his past misdeeds.
The film's plot deals with a helicopter pilot, Neal Meekin (Griffith), who helps an EPA employee (Feeney) try to prevent an oil company's new pipeline from causing a major avalanche.
He assembles a team, including Evans (Griffith), Sutherland (Whalin), Abel (Wise), Stoner (Trae Thomas), and Layton (Michelle Krusiec), to lead him across to the other side where, unbeknownst to his crew, he plans to set off a bomb.
[179][180] The first was a Christmas-time western drama set in Oregon in 1903, starring McEntire as Rose Cameron, a widow whose farm is about to be foreclosed by dishonest bank president Harlan Gotch (Ronny Cox), only to be reluctantly rescued by Harry Withers (Griffith), a lone rider in town.
[206] The plot deals with boat Capitan Jeffery Thorpe (Griffith), an ex-United States Navy and self-proclaimed pirate, who comes across a map of Montezuma's treasure shown to him by a mysterious Columbian woman, Helena (Gerit Kling, who also plays her twin sister Marlena), and the two must find it before The Colonel (Barry Flatman) claims it for his own.
[164] Filmed from April to May 2001 in Victoria, Deep Cove, Fernwood, and Brentwood Bay, British Columbia (standing in for Washington),[218][219][220] the plot deals with John Hawkins (Caruso), a divorced father whose life has been derailed when his daughter went missing years prior.
[234][235] Reuniting with director Rob Cohen (who had written and directed the pilot for The Guardian in 1997), Griffith was given a featured part in the spy-action flick xXx, in which he portrays NSA Agent Jim McGrath, who gets shot during the opening scene while running through a Rammstein concert; his dead body is then passed around via crowd surfing.
His final acting role was as a supporting character, playing the Russian Alexander Molokov in the one-night-only revival of the stage musical Chess, which went on at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on September 17, 2007.
[284][282][281] After coming up with the several story arcs, characters, and settings, taking much inspiration from the Book of Revelation and the Bible, the trio proposed the Asylum pilot to television network executives but were turned down because it was deemed too dark.
"[281][287][292] When the same assistant pushed that the cinematography of the show did not need to match that of the storyboards and art pieces provided because they were not making a comic book, King became disenchanted with the television prospect, and ended the meeting.
"[29][301] In October 2017, Griffith and Keller teamed up with Grimm's executive producers Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner and their company, Hazy Mills Productions, to bring the hour-long show into development.
[303] Griffith and Keller penned the episode "Sugar Hill," which recounts the long relationship of an elder couple together since childhood, starring Timothy Busfield, Patricia Wettig, Virginia Gardner, and Tom Brittney.
[307] The press release described the show as "A thriller about an American college student who, while interning for the CIA, finds herself torn among the loyalty to her country, the female crime boss protecting her and the young New York detective with whom she's fallen in love.
Griffith and Keller reunited with Dolly Parton's Heatrstrings producer Patrick Sean Smith in 2022, who had been named new showrunner for the upcoming fifth season of Netflix's romantic drama series Virgin River.