Laura Lawrence-Weinberg (née Brown) was a minor character of the Netflix series Cobra Kai. She is portrayed by Sharon Spelman and Candace Moon.
She was the mother of Johnny Lawrence, the wife of Sid Weinberg, the ex-wife of Mr. Lawrence, and the grandmother of Robby Keene and Laura Lawrence-Diaz.
Biography[]
Pre-Series[]
Laura Brown was born on June 6, 1942. At some point, Laura met and married Mr. Lawrence. On August 20, 1967, she gave birth to their son, Johnny Lawrence.
While Johnny was in kindergarten, his father left him and Laura for unknown reasons. Laura did her best to raise Johnny on her own afterwards, and there were implied hardships during these early years.
At some point when Johnny was still very young, Laura returned home from a night out and found Johnny was up playing despite his babysitter, Mrs. Wilson, putting him to bed. She told him that Sid Weinberg had proposed to her and they were going to get married. She promised her son that things were going to be much better for them, but an upset Johnny stormed off into his room. When Laura followed to convince him, she found her son seeking comfort in a large box of keepsakes that had belonged to his father. Laura got very upset, saying Johnny should not have saved these things and that they both had to move on from his father. She angrily told Johnny that his father had left them, and he was going to have a new father from now on. Laura then took the box of these items and said she was going to destroy them despite her son's protests.
Laura would go on to marry Sid, a very wealthy yet cruel man who was a high-level television producer in Hollywood, and would move her and Johnny into his mansion in the Encino Hills. Despite Laura's efforts, Sid treated Johnny poorly throughout his life, endlessly ridiculing him for his many failures in school and in social settings.
One day in 1979, Johnny returned to the mansion for lunch and excitedly told his mother about how he wanted to take karate classes as the Cobra Kai Dojo he had just found. Laura was supportive but Sid at first ridiculed Johnny and and cited his failures at drums, with a magicians set, and other things. However, Laura defended Johnny and convinced Sid to pay for his karate lessons.
If she spoiled Johnny a little bit, Laura provided much needed love, understanding and encouragement to her son. She also did her best to protect Johnny from his abusive and uncaring stepfather, encouraging him to explore his interests and make friends.
Sid's churlish ways affected a young Johnny who turned to the head sensei of the Cobra Kai Dojo, John Kreese, for guidance instead of to Laura and Sid.
She attended Johnny's karate tournaments and she would have met Sensei Kreese and Johnny's Cobra Kai teammates, both at tournaments, the dojo, and in social settings. Johnny would many years later, confess that her presence at his tournaments was a driving factor and motivation for him to excel at karate. It is doubtful she ever witnessed Johnny or his friends in their 'bad-boy ways' as Johnny and his allies often put on one face in front of those they wanted to impress socially and those they did not.
Film Series[]
The Karate Kid[]
Laura has dinner at the country club with Sid and Johnny, along with Ali Mills and Mr. and Mrs. Mills. While she is sitting with Sid at the table, Johnny is dancing with Mrs. Mills, who then hands him over to Ali. Johnny then forces a kiss on Ali, which is seen by Daniel LaRusso, who stumbles into the kitchen staff, resulting in him being covered in spaghetti. Laura, along with the other patrons, proceeded to laugh at Daniel, which left him humiliated.
In issue #3 of the comic series, however, Laura scolds Johnny afterwards for planting that kiss on Ali.
After 1984[]
After high school, Johnny continued to rely on Sid's financial support, and it was implied that it was only because of Laura that Sid continued to do so. By Johnny's own words, he partied his 20s and most of his 30s away, and still had access to the Encino Oaks Country Club as recently as the mid 1990's. Sid would accuse Johnny of freeloading off him later in life, a charge Johnny did not deny.
Laura would live to see Johnny's former girlfriend Shannon Keene give birth to her grandson, Robby Keene; she would also see Johnny abandon both Shannon and Robby.
When Laura unexpectedly died on September 23, 2007, her family disintegrated as only Johnny and Sid were left - they never considered each other family to begin with, and the already-poor father-son relationship devolved further into nasty hatred. It is apparent that Johnny loved his mother very much, as he keeps a framed photo of her in his living room alongside a picture of a younger Robby, and looks at both often.
Sid grew to detest Johnny even more, as prior to Laura's death, She had extracted a promise from Sid to always look out for his stepson. Despite his hatred of Johnny, Sid (to his credit) would keep his promise to Laura for the next 16 years, bailing Johnny out of jail on many occasions, while Sid's attorney's kept Johnny's many legal transgressions from being worse then they could have been.
On August 10, 2017, after an incident at Applebee's, Johnny visited Laura's grave. He knows it's been a little while since the last time he was here, hoping to have his life more together before he came to see her again, he guessed that was just a pipe dream and might not be able to get here for a little while. Later he reminisced how she come to his tournaments, how making her proud was the best feeling he ever had. And how after high school it's just been one loss after another and no one rooting for him & no one was in his corner. And after Applebee's incident now had he come to terms he is loser, sooner he come to terms with this its better, because in life you don't get second chances. And he very sorrowful that he let her down.
Cobra Kai[]
Season 1[]
Laura's photograph is seen and she is briefly mentioned by her widower Sid Weinberg.[2] In “Ace Degenerate”, the fall of 2017, Sid, tired of Johnny's many transgressions, bought him out of his life despite Laura's wishes.
As Johnny reminisces about his mother, he cleans off her photo that he keeps in his apartment.[3]
Season 2[]
Johnny tells his top student Miguel that Laura passed away right before Robby was born, and his depression over this is what led him to abandon his family.[4]
Season 6[]
After Daniel stops Sam and Tory's fight for female captain of the Sekai Taikai due to Tory being unstable after her mother passed away that resulted with her quitting Miyagi-Do, an upset Johnny, who was coaching the fight and wanted it to continue, privately argues with Daniel for his decision and brings up Laura's death as he relates to what Tory's going through. He explains to him that when Laura died, fighting would've help him with his loss which is why the captain's match would've helped Tory with her grief.[5]
Johnny and Carmen Diaz name their newborn daughter Laura, after Johnny's late mother. After winning the Sekai Taikai, Johnny visits Laura's grave to place flowers and a picture of him with his new family.
Trivia[]
- It is never stated what kind of job Laura had to support herself and Johnny before she married Sid.
- In "Fire and Ice" Johnny explicitly states to Miguel that Laura "had just died" before Robby's birth on February 4, 2002, so possible date as late as end of January of 2002 would be possible. Yet in "Ex Degenerate" her tombstone places her death at September 23, 2007, 5 years after Robby's birth. This was addressed by Hayden Schlossberg and confirms the new date of death as 2007, with Johnny being mistaken in his talk with Miguel due to Johnny's drinking at the time.
Gallery[]
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