William Christopher Ford

William Christopher Ford aka Christopher Paul Ford played strong but silent Cobra Kai bad boy, "Dennis", in "The Karate Kid Part III". He was made aware of an open casting call for "KKIII" for the part of "Mike Barnes" from a good friend and stood in line with hundreds of other young hopefuls. Director, John Avildsen came out with a camera man and started going down the line to take a look at all the talent and stopped to talk to a fortunate few including Ford who gave the director his headshot. About a week later, he got a call from Casting Director, Caro Jones, who called him into read for the part of "Barnes". About a month later he got a call from Jones telling him that the part of "Mike Barnes" had been cast but they wanted him to come down to the set because they needed an actor/stunt person/martial artist to play one of the supporting "bad boys". So Ford met with Stunt Coordinator Pat Johnson and Director John Avildsen the next day and was cast as "Dennis". At this writing, Ford is a 5th degree black belt in Okinawan Shorin Ryu Karate and studied directly with Sensei Richard Rabago and with Master Tadashi Yamashita. He has also studied Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Kick-boxing. He began studying Martial Arts in 1974 at the age of seven. Ford left the Entertainment Industry for many years to help raise his two kids but returned in 2006, and at this time he also changed his professional name to William Christopher Ford to honor his father who passed away in 2005. He has also worked as Chris Ford, William Ford and "WC" Ford. William was inducted into the Masters' Hall of Fame on Aug. 11th, 2012 and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in recognition of his commitment and contribution to the martial arts. He dedicated the acceptance of this award to his late martial arts mentor, Sensei Richard Rabago, who had suggested Ford for the award before his passing in May, 2012.