Sadly, it appears that David Carradine has killed himself.  According to news sources in Bangkok, he was found in his hotel room, possibly in the wardrobe, with a curtain cord around his neck.  (They also mention the possibility of other cords wrapped on him, but have called this a suicide at this point – no details have been released to protect his family.  However, the extra ropes make me wonder about accidental/autoerotic asphyxiation if they don’t think it’s a homicide, but that’s just a supposition on my part.) 

Carradine had been in Bangkok filming a new movie when his body was found by a hotel maid on Thursday morning. According to people associated with the production, he had failed to show up for a dinner the night before, but no one had been concerned at that point.  (According to reports, he had been dead for approx. 12 hours when he was finally discovered.)  He was 72 at the time of his passing.

Even though Carradine had hundreds of movie and TV credits, he will no doubt be best known for his iconic role as  Kwai Chang Caine in KUNG FU. And while the character of Caine was envisioned and created in the 1970s by Bruce Lee (who fully expected to play it, but Hollywood had other ideas), Carradine managed to pull off the half-Chinese, half-European West-wanderer for 3 years (and quite a few movies and a 2nd TV series based on the same character 20 years later.)  Not bad for a man who had Irish, English, Scottish, Welsh, German, Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian and Cherokee ancestry, but not a drop of Asian, eh?

Carradine’s career then faded into a series of B, C (and sometimes Z level movies) and small parts on TV shows, mostly in the martial arts and horror genres.  He could never quite capture that movie magic again, that is, until Quentin Tarantino made him "Bill" in 2003. (Even that part was to be someone else’s originally: Warren Beatty was supposedly tapped to play it as a "James Bondesque" assasin, but he bowed out, suggesting Carradine instead.)  However, even with that hit, afterwards Carradine still was only offered parts in non-mainstream movies as martial arts villains or supporting roles. He just couldn’t seem to find the fame he sought.

Carradine told the AP 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."

I can’t say he was my favorite actor, but David Carradine was definitely a part of my TV-watching childhood, and I admit I thoroughly enjoyed KUNG  FU, watching all the episodes (from both series), and he did Bill justice, not an easy thing to do. 

May he rest in peace… 

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