On the set of Karate Kid III, Sean Kanan nearly lost his life, but that can’t deter him from reprising his role as Cobra Kai’s beloved master.
The actor, now 55 years old, recently spoke about the terrifying experience that nearly lost him his life. With some leg soreness from a fight scene he had shot earlier, he and a companion went to Las Vegas after filming had stopped for the holidays.
In a conversation with the Daily Mail released on Wednesday, Kanan revealed that he had passed out while gambling at the Dunes Casino and later learned that the discomfort he had been experiencing in his leg was caused by internal bleeding and the blood flowing down on his femoral artery.
It had been a day since the bleeding had stopped, and I was hurried to the emergency room. From what he could recall, they had told him, “We don’t know if we can save your life. But, we’re going to try.” The experience was the terrifying thing that has ever occurred to me.
Despite being on the verge of death, Kanan reveals that retaining his position in the third installment of the acclaimed trilogy was his primary concern.
They were the ones who ended up saving my life. The actor, who plays a character in General Hospital, told the Mail that he received a call from the studio in which he was told that he needed to return to work within a specified amount of time (he can’t remember exactly how long it was, but he remembers it being less than a month). Initially, I was devastated, and then I became quite enraged.
The actor did, however, say that he saw some good in the situation. “One of the worst things that ever happened to me was also one of the most formative experiences of my life. Therefore I wouldn’t change it for the world. Not only that, but the tale itself is fantastic.”