Universal Ramblings

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 Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.

David Carradine is best known to the public for a single role, of Kwai Chang Caine, whom he portrayed during three seasons of the series [#Kung Fu (1972-75), and in its successor series ung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993-97). But in a career approaching its fifth decade, he has done memorable work in over 200 motion pictures and television dramas, numerous plays — including a successful run on Broadway early on — and has been a producer, director, writer, and composer for the screen as well.

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.”

He was born John Arthur Carradine, the eldest son of John Carradine, the beloved and very busy character actor, whose roles encompassed everything from John Steinbeck’s Reverend Casey to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. David Carradine’s early adult life was one of exploration.

Carradine had a restless youth, born Dec. 8, 1936 in Hollywood but raised in Manhattan, NY, the eldest son in an acting brood that included famous half-siblings, Keith and Robert. Educated at San Francisco State University, 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. It was while sporadically attending college, during which he worked as a manual laborer, that he began openly experimenting with drugs. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, he found work in New York as a commercial artist and got his first taste of fame on Broadway in “The Deputy” and “The Royal Hunt of the Sun” opposite Christopher Plummer. In 1964, he also made his feature film debut with a bit part in “Taggart,” a western based on a novel by Louis L’Amour. Carradine next inherited Alan Ladd’s role of a fading gunslinger for the small screen version of “Shane” (ABC, 1966) – a production that failed in the ratings, despite predictions to the contrary.

Married four times, Carradine has two daughters – Calista (b. 1962), from his first marriage, and Kansas (b. 1978), from his second marriage. He also has a son, Free Carradine (b.1972), from his relationship with Barbara Hershey. David lives in Los Angeles with his current wife, Annie, and her four children.