Buzzin TV

Kung Fu’s David Carradine Found Hanged

Terry Lane - Friday 05.06.09, 08:07am

The actor David Carradine was found hanged in the closet of his luxury hotel room in Thailand yesterday, two days into filming a new movie. He was 72. It is not clear whether his death was caused by suicide.

Five years ago he starred in the Quentin Tarrentino films Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2 as Bill. It was reported that Carradine was hoping it would resurrect his flailing career in the same way as Pulp Fiction had for John Travolta. But the Kill Bill didn’t elevate him to the ‘A List’ though it did keep him in work until his untimely death.

But David Carradine is best known as Kwai Chung Caine in the 1970’s martial arts American TV show Kung Fu. Possibly riding on the back of the cult of Bruce Lee, Kung Fu was the first American martial arts TV series.

I have very fond memories watching the series on a Saturday evening with my family as the nomad Caine would travel from town to town across America looking for food, shelter and work.; and though the most gentle of people, Caine would somehow always have to fight his way out of a situation and then leave town, using flashbacks as a the young Grasshopper learning his wisdom from his blind Taoist monk teacher..

Surprisingly, David Carradine left after only three series of Kung Fu between 1972-75, rightly stating the episodes were repeating themselves.

In 1975 he had a big screen success starring in the film Death Race 2000 and the following year received critical acclaim as Woody Guthire in Bound For Glory. But though he continued to act in films and on tv for the rest of his life, David Carradine was always remembered as ‘the bloke for Kung Fu’ which caused personal problems not helped by alcohol and drug abuse.

In 1986 he returned to the role for a TV film, Kung Fu: The Movie (which also starred Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon Lee) and again between 1993-97 in the spin-off series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.

Carradine’s life was dogged by drug abuse. Alcohol and LSD were his drugs of choice until recently, when apparently he had found inner peace through Zen Buddhism in much the same way as the character Cain.