Kung Fu Hero is with Buddah

THAILAND BANGKOK — David Carradine, star of the TV series “Kung Fu” also Infamous for Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill,” was found dead Yesterday in Thailand. Police said he appeared to have hung himself.
The officer investigating this death, Teerapop Luanseng, said the 72-year-old actor was staying at a suite at the Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel. “I can confirm that we found his body, naked, hanging in one of the closest in the suite,” Teerapop said. He said it’s May more or less is suicide.

Michael Turner a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday morning, but cannot provide further details out of consideration for his family. Mr. Carradine was in Bangkok shooting the movie “Stretch,” said his manager, Chuck Binder. “We’re very saddened, he was a wonderful guy,” said Lori Binder, a partner in the agency that represented Carradine.

Thai newspaper “The Nation” said Mr. Carradine could not be contacted after he failed to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, and that his body was found by a hotel maid sometime Yesterday morning. Police investigation says that it seemed that a cord from the curtains in the suite was used in the process of the hanging. They also mentioned that it didn’t seem to be a struggle or an assault.

Police said Carradine’s body was taken to a local hospital to determine if it fact this was a suicide or maybe worse. David Carradine appeared in over 100 feature films and acted with such stars as Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. One of his earlier but more memorable film roles other than Caine was as singer Woody Guthrie in Ashby’s 1976 “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. His return to TV where he played Caine’s grandson in the mid 1990’s syndicated series “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. His return to the top of the charts recently with such characters like Quentin Tarantino’s two-part saga “Kill Bill” and his lead as “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 begins a vengeful rampage against her old associates after being left for dead. In “Kill Bill — Vol. 2,” released in 2004,Uma Thurman’s character comes face to face again with Bill himself. A role that brought Mr. Carradine a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actor.

Which truly is sad because I grew up with Kung Fu and saw some of his other work on USA’s old “Kung fu Theater” and some of his american based feature movies as well. He will be missed and my heart and condolenses go to his family.