BANGKOK (AP) David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series Kung Fu whose career roared back to life when he played the assassin-turned-victim in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, was found dead Thursday in Thailand. Police said he appeared to have hanged himself.
The officer responsible for investigating the death said that Carradine had hanged himself with a cord used with the suite's curtains. It cited police as saying there was no sign that he had been assaulted.

Police said Carradine's body was taken to a hospital for an autopsy which would be carried out Friday.

Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, legendary character actor John Carradine (Stagecoach), and Oscar-winning brother Keith (Nashville).

In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. One of his prominent early film roles was as singer Woody Guthrie in Ashby's 1976 biopic Bound for Glory.

But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series Kung Fu, which aired in 1972-75.

He reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine's grandson in the 1990s syndicated series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.

He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's two-part saga Kill Bill.

The character, the worldly father figure of a pack of crack assassins, was a shadowy presence in 2003's Kill Bill Vol. 1. In that film, one of Bill's former assassins (Uma Thurman) begins a vengeful rampage against her old associates.

In Kill Bill Vol. 2, released in 2004, Thurman's character comes face to face again with Bill himself. The role brought Carradine a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actor.

Bill was a complete contrast to his TV character Kwai Chang Caine, the soft-spoken refugee from a Shaolin monastery, serenely spreading wisdom and battling bad guys in the Old West. He left after three seasons, saying the show had started to repeat itself.

After Kung Fu, Carradine starred in the 1975 cult flick Death Race 2000. He starred with Liv Ullmann in Bergman's The Serpent's Egg in 1977 and with his brothers in the 1980 Western The Long Riders.

But after the early 1980s, he spent two decades doing mostly low-budget films. Tarantino's films changed that.

"All I've ever needed since I more or less retired from studio films a couple of decades ago ... is just to be in one," Carradine told The Associated Press in 2004.

"There isn't anything that Anthony Hopkins or Clint Eastwood or Sean Connery or any of those old guys are doing that I couldn't do," he said. "All that was ever required was somebody with Quentin's courage to take and put me in the spotlight."

One thing remained a constant after Kung Fu: Carradine's interest in Oriental herbs, exercise and philosophy. He wrote a personal memoir called Spirit of Shaolin and continued to make instructional videos on tai chi and other martial arts.

In the 2004 interview, Carradine talked candidly about his past boozing and narcotics use, but said he had put all that behind him and stuck to coffee and cigarettes.

"I didn't like the way I looked, for one thing. You're kind of out of control emotionally when you drink that much. I was quicker to anger."

"You're probably witnessing the last time I will ever answer those questions," Carradine said. "Because this is a regeneration. It is a renaissance. It is the start of a new career for me.


'You start out wrinkled and you cry...you end up wrinkled and you die.'

I first came to know of him through the 'Kung Fu' show in the '70's.

So sad and senseless; dying (allegedly..) by your own hand. Especially when it happens later on in life. Seventy-something isn't that old nowadays.. Aparently, in the past he has commented on guns and self-inflicted things.. Very sad.

To me, when someone dies like this at such an age, it's almost a bit like the 90-year-old granny that dies in a car wreck: you'd figure that natural causes would be the way, but life doesn't always work out that way.

It sounds like he was a very troubled man. I wish him peace; peace I'm not so sure he actually knew enough of in this life.

RIP Mr. Carradine.

gge

I used to watch the Kung Fu Shows also as a kid every Saturday night,during the week we used to act it out in the School Playground.
It seems strange though a man who was all into martial arts/body and soul stuff to top himself at that late an age?

I recollect an interview with Mr. Carradine (cause I'm old) where he said that he didn't know from kung fu, but he'd trained as a dancer so he could do the moves. I suppose one should trust the song and not the singer, but a sad loss nevertheless, as it seemed like he was getting work and doing well.

It was definitely murder - but was it art?

Well according to wiki...
Carradine produced and starred in several exercise videos teaching the martial arts of Tai chi and Qi Gong. Carradine actually had no knowledge of martial arts prior to starring in the series Kung Fu, but developed an interest in it after this experience and became an avid practitioner.
?
Still though i cannot see a guy of his age actually carrying this out as you said he was still working and his career was going good.
Maybe he knew his days where numbered due to medical reasons?Then again the mind is a funny thing?

Bats is very sad about his passing,,he seem to fill the Gap when Bruce Lee
passed away RIP
Bats

For seventy two he still looked well.

He played a chinaman called Kwai Chang Caine
He wanted peace but got into lots of fights
It is time for him to leave
He's dead.

I was listening to an old interview with the late Mr. Carradine - he said his thing really was dance but he had to sneak out for them because his dad (the even later John Carradine) told him "No son of mine is going to make his living with his feet". Sorry, Da'.

It was definitely murder - but was it art?

Asphyxiwanking is a tricky business.

Confucius Say ! With all those cute Thai girls , Should not put cord around neck and WANK...

Told me that Asphyxiwanking gives you funny eyes, Grasshopper.

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I love lions.

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Yucky poo!

He had a rope tied around his dick!?

RIP




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I had a pet sin once - it got run over by a garbage truck.

Its a shame. RIP.

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I Thailand Newspapers once your dead your dead....

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