[Movie] "When You Can Take The Pebble From My Hand..." David Carradine Dies, Aged 72

Quote:

Veteran actor David Carradine who played the title role in Kill Bill, has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room.

Carradine, 72, who was in Thailand shooting a new film, was found by crew members after failing to turn up for a dinner.

The Nation newspaper quoted police sources as saying the actor was found hanged in his luxury room.

Carradine, who also starred in the cult 1970s TV series Kung Fu, was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family which included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith.

Carradine appeared in more than 100 feature films with directors such as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. One of his prominent early film roles was as singer Woody Guthrie in Ashby's 1976 biopic Bound For Glory.

But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest travelling the 1800s American frontier West in the Kung Fu series shown 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 movie saga Kill Bill.

"There isn't anything that Anthony Hopkins or Clint Eastwood or Sean Connery or any of those old guys are doing that I couldn't do," he said. "All that was ever required was somebody with Quentin's courage to take and put me in the spotlight."

Bill was a complete contrast to his TV character Kwai Chang Caine, the soft-spoken refugee from a Shaolin monastery, serenely spreading wisdom and battling bad guys in the Old West. He left after three seasons, saying the show had started to repeat itself.

One thing remained a constant after Kung Fu: Carradine's interest in Oriental herbs, exercise and philosophy. He wrote a personal memoir called "Spirit of Shaolin" and continued to make instructional videos on tai chi and other martial arts.

The Press Association: David Carradine found dead in hotel

David Carradine was a very good actor who was boxed into a certain type of role, much like the careers of Alec Guiness or David Warner. However, Carradine was tough as a box of nails and disliked a lot of the work he did and didn't particulary care for fans either, as this picture well addresses.



He took a lot of flack - his family made fun of him for not only taking on the role in Kung Fu but people in the real world assuming he was asian. Its a sad end to a really good actor who was underwhelmed by his filmography.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

Uh, fuck Carradine. Kung-Fu should have gone to Bruce Lee.

He took a role he was offered. Blame the producers for walking off with the idea.

Also: "hurr hurr hurr, I'm Braydee and I saws them there thar Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. I'm intelligicable in this here thread of topiks."

Originally Posted by Musharraf

Is that Saruman from Lord of the Rings?

That was Christopher Lee.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

Tragic though it may be, at least we can say he went out in some kinky, filthy sex accident as opposed to some sort of pussy suicide thing.

I wish I didn't laugh at this

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Encephalon

I always liked him in Kung-Fu (both of them, curiously enough) and I wish he hadn't gone out like this.

You know what though? If you have to die, dying during orgasm ain't half bad. Theres a hell of a lot worse ways to go.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?