Notably, he was Ralph Macchio’s stunt double beginning with “Crossroads,” the 1986 film about a wannabe blues guitarist, through all of the “Karate Kid” films.

Rodarde and Macchio — the man he calls “Ralphie” — have been close for nearly 40 years.

“Back then, Ralphie and I were the same height and weight and looked the same,” Rodarte said. “When Ralphie introduces me, he says I was his double until I lost my job.”

Recently, Rodarte traded the bright lights of Hollywood for the starry skies of the Hill Country.

Rodarte, 69, moved to Kerrville two years ago with his wife, the former Becky Bower, who grew up in Kerrville and graduated from Tivy High School.

“We lived in California for 34 years, and she always wanted to come home,” Rodarte said.

Becky worked in commercial real estate in Los Angeles, but when her parents died, the couple decided to move to the property she inherited in Kerrville.

“I’m mostly a producer these days, and I can do it anywhere,” he said.

Rodarte grew up near the beach in Southern California, where he loved surfing and all kinds of sports.

His path to stardom occurred in his senior year of high school, when he and his cousin began competing in dance competitions.

“Disco was very good for us,” he said. “It was the best music for dancing in the 70s.”

In 1973, a friend got him an interview for “American Bandstand,” which Dick Clark had moved to Los Angeles from its founding base in Philadelphia.

“I was 17 years old. Can you imagine?” Rodarte said.

For five years, Rodarte and his Bandstand dance partner, Tarie Baginski, were regulars on the show, often appearing in the “Spotlight Dance.”

“Dick Clark really took me under his wing,” he said.

Watching YouTube videos from that era, it’s easy to spot Rodarte and Baginski, dressed in black suits with white trim. The camera seemed to love them.

It was another dance competition that gave him his second big break: Fred Berry asked him to replace dancer and choreographer Deney Terrio in the dance group The Lockers, pioneers of street dance and the locking dance style.

The dance group toured the world and performed in shows with Bob Hope, Liza Minnelli, Ben Vereen and Wayne Newton.

Rodarte said his parents wanted him to become a dentist or a teacher.

“They had no idea you could make a living dancing,” he said.

The first time his parents saw him perform, he was on stage with Bob Hope.

“They changed their mind.”

During breaks in the touring schedule with The Lockers, Rodarte began getting acting jobs, eventually appearing for five years as a regular on “Hill Street Blues” and episodes of “The Love Boat,” “Dallas” and “Fantasy Island.”

When another friend connected him with Macchio’s agent, the two actors became fast friends.

He and “Ralphie” hit it off so well that Macchio wrote it into his contract that Rodarte was guaranteed a job as his double.

“Were you ever hurt?” I asked Rodarte.

“None. It was all acting, even though Mr. T threw me out of the boxing ring on the set of ‘Rocky,'” he said. “It was all choreographed, so nobody got hurt.”

These days, Rodarte’s life is calmer, with the biggest stress having to deal with the gate to his estate.

“Half the time the remote doesn’t work!”

Rodarte and Becky have a large circle of friends, classmates from her time at Tivy.

He meets once a month for lunch with some of these men’s friends, and on Friday nights they all go to Trivia Night and the Arcadia.

But the bright lights will lure him back to California in November, when his buddy “Ralphie” gets his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Rodarte said.