David Carradine Dead at 72

by Libby Pelham | More from this Blogger

Yesterday, actor David Carradine was found dead in his hotel room in Thailand where he had been filming a new movie titled Stretch. Circumstances of his death remain unknown. First, it was published that the Bangkok police believed he had committed suicide, since he was found hanging from a nylon rope in the hotel room, but Carradine's co-manager Tiffany Smith says, "I can tell you 100 percent that he would have never committed suicide." There was no forced sign of entry into the room, yet Carradine's openness about past use of drugs and alcohol as well as thoughts of suicide may have lead to the initial statements.

Carradine came from a family of actors. His father John and his brothers Keith, Robert, and Bruce were all actors as well as Keith's daughter, Martha Plimpton. Plimpton released as statement that said, "My Uncle David was a brilliantly talented, fiercely intelligent and generous man. He was the nexus of our family in so many ways, and drew us together over the years and kept us connected." Kill Bill costar Michael Madsen said, "It is shocking to me that he is no longer with us. I had been thinking about calling him for the last several days. ... I have so many great memories of David that I wouldn't even know where to begin. He has a very special place in my heart."

Carradine served a couple of years in the Army, then began working on both television and movies. He appeared in sixteen episodes of "Shane" in 1966, but it would not be until 1972, when he starred in "Kung Fu" as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest that traveled the American west in the 1800s, that he would be come a household name. The show only ran three years, but is still revered by many today as classic television. He received a Golden Globe nomination in 1974 for Best TV Actor - Drama.

Carradine appeared in 1976's Bound for Glory, for which he received his second Golden Globe nomination. He would receive another for "North and South" and his final in 2004 for Kill Bill: Vol 2.

Carradine continued to work through the '80s and '90s, but it would be the character Bill in Kill Bill films of the early 2000s that would return him to his popularity of "Kung Fu" days. Carradine credited Tarantino with his late in life success saying, "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. All that was ever requires was somebody with Quentin's courage to take and put me in the spotlight." After Carradine's death, Tarantino said he was one of "Hollywood's great mad geniuses" and that Carradine was a "rock star" when "Kung Fu" came out.

Over his career, Carradine starred in over 100 feature films, two dozen made for television movies, and theater work.

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Libby Pelham is a web designer/freelance writer located in Memphis, TN. She has a beautiful little boy, Will, born in July of 2004.

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