The Survivor

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Actor David Carradine found dead in Bangkok (AP)
41 minutes ago

BANGKOK - 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, 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. 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 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."


The character, the worldly father figure of a pack of crack assassins, was a shadowy presence in 2003's "Kill Bill - Vol. 1." In that film, one of Bill's former assassins (Uma Thurman) begins a vengeful rampage against her old associates.


In "Kill Bill - Vol. 2," released in 2004, Thurman's character comes face to face again with Bill himself. The role brought Carradine a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actor.


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.


After "Kung Fu," Carradine starred in the 1975 cult flick "Death Race 2000." He starred with Liv Ullmann in Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" in 1977 and with his brothers in the 1980 Western "The Long Riders."


But after the early 1980s, he spent two decades doing mostly low-budget films. Tarantino's films changed that.


"All I've ever needed since I more or less retired from studio films a couple of decades ago ... is just to be in one," Carradine told The Associated Press in 2004.


"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."


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.


In the 2004 interview, Carradine talked candidly about his past boozing and narcotics use, but said he had put all that behind him and stuck to coffee and cigarettes.


"I didn't like the way I looked, for one thing. You're kind of out of control emotionally when you drink that much. I was quicker to anger."


"You're probably witnessing the last time I will ever answer those questions," Carradine said. "Because this is a regeneration. It is a renaissance. It is the start of a new career for me.


"It's time to do nothing but look forward."
___


Associated Press writer Polly Anderson in New York contributed to this report.

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Very sad news my thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of David Carradine.

vc318

Oh my gosh! I am totally shocked! This can't be right - why would he hang himself? He was such an awesome actor. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his loved ones. He will be truly missed.

LaraCroft01

His agent says that there is no way it was suicide.

From here

The whole thing seems very strange to me. I hope they can get to the truth of it.

vc318

I hope so too. There's still no clear answer how he died.

Callace

Very strange thing. And very sad, no matter what happened.

But judged by what we have read here, suicide does seem like the most likely option. It is only natural that his friends and family are shocked and cant believe it. But that someone else should break into his hotel room that evening and hang him, without getting noticed by anyone or leaving any trace, seems all the more unlikely. And that he would get strung up in his wardrobe by accident... that would be a highly peculiar accident in any case. Not easy to end up like that without conscious effort.

TheAngel

I think it was an accident. I think it was erotic asphyxiation gone wrong. The newer reports coming out really lead me to believe that. I mean, it says the rope was tied around his neck and his genitals and that he was naked, none of those things really indicate foul play. How many murders here result in an attacker hanging their victim? Probably none, and since none of the reports say that he was gagged, he could easily have screamed for help, and no one in the hotel heard a struggle. I also don't think he committed suicide because he seems like the type who would have left some kind of note for his family.

Rainstorm Jenny

Wow thats insane. Hopefully the truth of the situation wiill be revealed soon.

RIP David.

Bella Grint

He was such a good actor, RIP and I hope they solve this

Callace

Ok, I really dont know much about sex games But if he is that type, then maybe...

not so sure about the note thing, though, Maybe the potential suicide was an act of the moment, without that much careful planning? IDK. But that too is a possibility.

TheAngel

I just don't fly with the whole, foul play, thing, because no one heard a struggle and no one hangs someone to kill them. I mean, if they did then this is probably the first. It's not even like the BTK serial killer or something like that, it's stripping the guy naked, hanging him in his closet, and somehow doing this in a way that other people don't hear and without signs of forced entry.

Callace

we agree then. Somebody else killing him is very out of the question.

vc318

The family wants an FBI investigation into his death:

Carradine's family wants FBI to investigate death - MSN TV News

BANGKOK (AP) -- The family of American actor David Carradine has asked the FBI to help investigate his death after his body was found in a hotel closet in Thailand's capital with a rope tied to his neck, wrist and genitals.

Carradine's family does not believe he committed suicide and is troubled by conflicting accounts about the circumstances of his death, Mark Geragos, an attorney for brother Keith Carradine, told CNN's Larry King late Friday.

"They want an investigation," Geragos said. "I would think that the people in Bangkok would want to support an investigation and allow the FBI to go over there and assist in the investigation so we can get the answers to the questions."

Thai police said Saturday they have not been contacted by the FBI.

Police initially said Carradine's body was found "naked, hanging in a closet," causing them to suspect he committed suicide, though no suicide note was found.

On Friday, however, police said the actor may have died from accidental suffocation or heart failure after revealing that he was found with a rope tied around his neck and penis — leading to speculation that Carradine may have engaged in a dangerous form of sex play.

The results of an autopsy performed Friday in Bangkok were not expected for at least three weeks, said Dr. Nanthana Sirisap, director of Chulalongkorn Hospital's Autopsy Center.

Carradine's body was flown out of Bangkok early Saturday on a United Airlines flight bound for Los Angeles via Tokyo, according to local media and an airport official, who refused to be identified because she was not authorized to speak to the media. The U.S. Embassy would not confirm those details.

Just the way they found his body is so bizarre. If somebody did this to him, they're really twisted.

GlitterCupcake

this is a sad story

vc318

And it just keeps getting stranger:

News from WENN

Carradine's Third Wife Details Auto-Erotic Past

8 June 2009 12:05 PM, PDT

David Carradine's third wife Gail Jensen has stepped forward to echo accounts of his allegedly unconventional sexual history, insisting the late actor had a penchant for auto-erotica throughout their marriage.

The Kill Bill star, 72, was found hanging in his Bangkok hotel room on Thursday; some reports suggest he committed suicide, while local police believe he died accidentally as he took part in a dangerous sex game involving auto-erotic asphyxiation - where victims achieve heightened sexual pleasure by restricting their air supply.

Gail Jensen, who ended her nine year marriage to Carradine in 1997, claims the actor would spend days planning to construct elaborate sexual devices he used to tie himself up.

Speaking in an interview at the weekend (begs06Jun09), Jensen said: "David was pretty strange. He would like to get tied up. He would tie himself up and I would walk in and see him and say, 'Oh my God, David, you got to be kidding me' - and I would (turn around and) walk out. I would leave him to his own devices. He liked to be tied up. And he could tie himself up... He spent days planning a different feature. He would go to a hardware store and buy the stuff."

Just last week (begs01Jun09), TheSmokingGun.com published legal documents from Carradine's fourth wife Marina Anderson, detailing the actor's "potentially deadly" sex habits. Carradine's former lawyer and longterm friend Vicki Roberts has called Anderson's claims "extremely inflammatory and completely false".

The actor's family requested the FBI's involvement last week (ends05Jun09), urging authorities to assist the Thai police investigation to prove the star had no intention of killing himself.

An initial autopsy report carried out by Thai coroners reveals Carradine died from a sudden lack of oxygen; his body showed no signs of struggle. Doctors in Carradine's native U.S. are expected to examine the actor's body this week (begs08Jun09) after his remains were flown back at the weekend.

I would never expect this from Mr. Carradine but you never know what is really going on in the lives of these actors sometimes. What a tragic mistake.

sunnykerr

I just watched a new episode of Mental where Mr Carradine was the weekly guest-star and, I have to say, it felt a little strange to see him play his character.

I have to say that I don't really care to find out all the tawdry details surrounding his death. I mean, I hope his loved ones get all the answers they want. But I didn't know the man. I don't feel it would be right for me to be let in on his final moments like that.