If you cannot be a poet, be the poem. ~David Carradine
Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series “Kung Fu” who also had a wide-ranging career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok. A news report said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide.
David Carradine is the eldest son of legendary character actor John Carradine and now presides over an acting family that includes brothers Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine and Michael Bowen as well as his daughters Calista Carradine, Kansas Carradine and nieces Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton.
He was born in Hollywood and educated at San Francisco State College, where he studied music theory and composition. It was while writing music for the Drama Department’s annual revues that he discovered his own passion for the stage, joining a Shakespearean repertory company and learning his craft on his feet.
After a two-year stint in the army, he found work in New York as a commercial artist and later found fame on Broadway in “The Deputy” and “The Royal Hunt of the Sun” opposite Christopher Plummer. With that experience he returned to Hollywood, landing the short-lived TV series “Shane” (1966) before being tapped to star opposite Barbara Hershey in Martin Scorsese’s first Hollywood film, Boxcar Bertha (1972). The iconic “Kung Fu” (1972) followed, catapulting Carradine to superstardom for the next three years, until he left the series to pursue his film career.
That career now includes more than 100 feature films, a couple of dozen television movies, a whole range of theater on and off Broadway, and another hit series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1992) (TV). Carradine received the Best Actor Award from the National Board of Film Review as well as a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Woody Guthrie in Hal Ashby’s Bound for Glory (1976), and won critical acclaim for his work as Cole Younger in The Long Riders (1980). “Kung Fu” also received seven Emmy nominations in its first season, including one for Carradine as Best Actor. In addition he won the People’s Prize at the Cannes Film Festival’s “Director’s Fortnight” for his work on Americana (1983), and a second Golden Globe nomination for his supporting role in “North and South” (1985).
Among his other most notable film credits are Gray Lady Down (1978), Mean Streets (1973), Bird on a Wire (1990), The Long Goodbye (1973), The Serpent’s Egg (1977) and Circle of Iron (1978).
He recently returned to the screen in what could be his greatest performance to date, playing the title role in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) (Miramax), for which he received his fourth Golden Globe nomination.
Carradine has also continued his devotion to music, and has recorded some 60 tracks from various musical genres and sung in several movies. He makes his home in Los Angeles with his wife Annie, her four children and their two dogs.
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taste of ‘eastern philosophy’ watching kung-fu. i am forever indebted to this man for opening my eyes to new ideas…..
Whether in the Kung Fu TV series or in the KIll Bill flicks he a strong prescence. Will be missed.
Something about that show and he was a big part of that. RIP David.
and he was a very unpleasant person. Not to piss on the dead, but if I had a list of people “most likely to be found dead in a Bangkok hotel room” he’d be pretty high on the list.
Interesting actor, though.
My first thoughts were of when my son was little, really little. He was probably about 6 months old, and Kung Fu reruns were on every day. I’d plop him in his walker in front of the tv, and he just stayed hypnotised from the time the flute music started until the end of the show. Thats when I got my work done.
I remember watching Kung Fu as an iddy-biddy Karmafish and, coincidentally, recently put Disc 1, Season 1 in my Netflix queue.
much pleasure as the Kung Fu man. I will never forget.
I was a kid. May he rest in peace.
I knew Dave personally, & he was one of the strangest persons I`ve ever met.
I first met him when he came to my house in Malibu in 1981.
He saw a guitar & decided he should play a song.
He played a haunting tune with no semblance of musical unity but I`ll never forget it. It was way out there.
A few years later I built a movie editing studio for him at his house.
I lived there, at his house, from Mondays to Fridays, & came back home Saturday morning, returning to his place on Monday morning.
His studio was, from what he told me, mainly to edit all the footage he`d taken of his daughter Kansas, since she was born. He was very determined to produce this piece.
He was a very friendly person in close quarters, but was actually distant, to most, from what I saw.
His Southern/Kentucky Blue Heelers, (I think that`s what he called his breed of dogs) were very special to him.
Having had many dogs in my life & knowing how important discipline is with dogs, I had a hard time reconciling with the freedom the dogs had, especially when it was no big deal that they`d chewed parts of the carved Balinese elephants, that were the free standing bases for a beautiful & I`m sure, very expensive table.
He was always amazed, that I would bring in raw material, & soon had windows hanging in an opening I`d cut out of the wall in the studio I was building. Since the death of my wife a few months previous, my daughter accompanied me everywhere. At three & a half years old, she would spend the day by the pool, in my line of view & watched over by his dogs.
I`m sorry his path led him to a noose in Bangkok, alone, but he did have a unique path he seemed to never have strayed from.
BTW, I can completely understand & have no quarrel with Inky99`s comment.
The “Grasshopper” most of all of us have seen & maybe admired, (And why not) wasn`t the only charater he played, but it was also only a character.
Dave was a very complex & possibly confused man. I did see some of his facets but most of them did shine favorably, & for that I could never regret having known him.
RIP
I vote: Bill
For me he pulled that one off very well.
biopic of Woodie Guthrie, “Bound For Glory”
RIP Dave
I grew up on Kung Fu, but of his work I most appreciated Bound for Glory. Everyone should see that, the story of Woody Guthrie.
I saw this morning in the wires that now Carradine’s death is considered not suicide but accidental. He was practicing sexual auto-asphixiation, considering where else the ropes were tied.
Anyhow, mostly I wanted to stop by and say good morning to you. 🙂