BANGKOK â 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. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. He said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family. The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room. It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday. The newspaper said 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 at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The name of the movie was not immediately available. It said a preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a cord used with the room's curtains. It cited police as saying he had been dead at least 12 hours and there was no sign that he had been assaulted. A police officer at Bangkok's Lumpini precinct station would not confirm the identity of the dead man to The Associated Press, but said the luxury Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel had reported that a male guest killed himself there. Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith. In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. 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."
[..] police sources have told The Sun in London that Carradine may have died after he attempted an erotic asphyxiation act when he wrapped a cord around his neck. A police officer said: "A rope was attached to his neck and also to his penis". Lieutenant Colonel Pirom did confirm the rope was connected to his neck and other parts of his body. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25590319-5006003,00.html
did he also tie his hands together and attach to the cord to his neck?? I'm betting there is more to this story. "Both of his hands were bound with a cord which was also tied around his neck, said an officer at the station who requested anonymity." http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/17906/kung-fu-star-carradine-dead
This was a big deal several years ago, and a number of teenagers tried this with the same result. As a veteran of adolescence, lonely nights on the road, isolated Army posts, I have some experience with the subject matter. But never have I ever said, "Man, that wasn't bad. But I think it could be even better if I wrapped a piece of rope around my neck and............" Just never came to mind.
I loved that show. I wanted to burn a tiger and a dragon on my forearms. I bought the "Kung Fu baseball cards" with exercises on them and did them all. It hardened my body. As a young boy, I bought a wooden flute and tried to teach myself to play, as I tried to duplicate the sound of the opening segment (later in another one of my all time fav shows, Jean Luke Picard takes up the picolo and plays a song that eerily reminds me of the theme song of Kung Fu) I later realized that it was Bruce Lee that had conceptualized that show, and he was to star in it as "Kwai Chang Caine". Racism I hear kept him from landing the role. Honestly, I think Carradine was perfectly cast for the role and I couldn't imagine anyone else in it. May he RIP.
Shame to go that way. Kung Fu was great television in its day, and even now . Maybe I'll hunt down some on the net in memoriam.
And, he was in Bangkok....surely, from what I have heard......he could have found some one(s) to keep him "company"
Young Kwai Chang: "Master, how is it that you hear these things?" Master: "Grasshopper, how is it that you do not?"
Young Kwai Chang: Master, how is it you became so rich by trading this thing called the ES? Master: I do not, I sell signals that I make up in a chat room, but I never trade my own calls for then I would be broke.