David Carradine found dead in Bangkok

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David Carradine, hero to every guy in the world, is dead today at the age of 72. The first report coming out of Thailand is that Carradine committed suicide in a hotel room in Bangkok, where he was about to star shooting a movie. Carradine was the star or guest star of more than 200 films and television shows – his IMDB page is huge. His most famous works include the television shows Kung Fu and Shane, and many of the younger people will know him from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Volumes 1 and 2, where Carradine was brilliantly cast as Bill. Carradine was famously a practitioner and promoter of martial arts, like Tai Chi and Qi Gong. Carradine is survived by his wife, Annie, whom he married in 2004 in Malibu.

“Kung Fu” and “Kill Bill” star David Carradine was found hung himself in a closet in a hotel room in Bangkok on Wednesday, Thai police said.

Police believed he committed suicide.

Carradine, 72, was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and stayed at a Suite Room 352 of the Park Nai Lert Hotel on Wireless Road since June 2.

The film crew were aware of his absence when they went to dine out at a restaurant on Sathorn Road on June 3.

Carradine did not show up at the dinner and the team could not reach him. They assumed that he took a rest because of his age.

It was a hotel’s maid who opened his suite on Thursday at 10 am only to find Carradine in a closet. He was described as behind half naked.

Police investigation showed that he hung himself with a rope, the kind that is used with curtains.

Police said he was dead for not less than 12 hours and found no sign of fighting and assaults.
Kung Fu Man

Aside from Quentin Tarantino’s twopart “Kill Bill” in 200304, Carradine was perhaps best known for his role as the fugitive halfChinese Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s easternwestern TV drama “Kung Fu”. He also starred in Martin Scorsese’s “Boxcar Bertha” in 1972, portrayed folksinger Woody Guthrie in “Bound for Glory” in 1976, acted in Ingmar Bergman’s “The Serpent’s Egg” in 1977 and costarred with half brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine in the 1980 western “The Long Riders”.

His father was the noted actor John Carradine.

In Thai cinemas, Carradine was recently seen as a martialarts guru in the Rob Schneider comedy “Big Stan” and as a perverted elderly Chinese mobster in “Crank: High Voltage” starring Jason Statham.

[From Thailand’s The Nation]

This report from Thailand is just the initial report, and it could be wrong on some or many of the details. Carradine’s manager Chuck Binder is already saying that he believes Carradine’s death was from natural causes, and not from a suicide as reported in the Thai press. Carradine was known in Hollywood circles as an utter professional, a good, decent, brilliant, funny man who simply loved to work and loved his fans. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

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46 Responses to “David Carradine found dead in Bangkok”

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  1. lena says:

    so sad

  2. Sauronsarmy says:

    Poor man. I’m not completely sure I believe in an after life or heaven or whatever but, I hope he found peace.

  3. Whatever says:

    Well I wonder if there going to show the episode he guest starred in on “Mental”. Now with a suicide it might be bad taste.

  4. audrey says:

    I saw him sing at a charity event here in NYC about 3 weeks ago. He seemed so happy and sounded wonderful on vocals and guitar. So sad and unexpected.

  5. kiki says:

    strange
    sucide or self pleasure?

  6. I Choose Me says:

    I am so saddened by this. I loved that show (Kung Fu) growing up and Kill Bill is one of my favourite films.

    RIP Mr. Carradine.

  7. teehee says:

    Woah no way– I totally cant see him as one to take his own life…. ? So sad that hes gone, regardless of how….

  8. Victoria says:

    My father, sister and I never missed an episode of Kung Fu. This is so sad. Rest in peace.

  9. AnnaClaire says:

    I wonder if he wasn’t murdered and then hung up so it looked like suicide. Some weird stuff happens in Thailand. One guy originally from my town but living in Thailand was murdered by his Thai wife’s lover, and another guy from here was shot to death by an off duty police officer in Bangkok. Apparently the “cop” tried to grab hometown boy’s girlfriend’s purse, and when our guy tried to grab it back, he was killed. Then another guy from here married a Thai woman, they went back to visit her family, and some thug charged into their private room in a restaurant and killed the husband. Lots of coffins being shipped back here from Thailand, it seems.
    Just wondering. I agree wih the person who said Carradine just seemed too engaged in his career to be depressed enough to kill himself.

  10. Annie says:

    My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and hopefully, the damn news won’t spread the sordid details of his passing everywhere.

  11. Wow says:

    Sad, sad, sad. He was a legend.

    I sense foul-play.

    🙁

  12. Sol says:

    Some say he died as Michael Hutchence from INXS ,as Kiki states a self pleasure thing might be involved ,and i agree with AnnaClaire Thailand is a strange place.

  13. Lem says:

    wow. is it too rude to hope the whole story is wrong and they meant David Carruso?

    So sad. A shame he’ll marred by scandal

  14. Bodhi says:

    🙁 the whole thing is so sad & what is sadder still is that people are trashing his death before they know anything about it. Damn shame

  15. How horrible. My deepest sympathies and condolences to his surviving family. Whatever the circumstances, they need a lot of love and kind thoughts right now.

  16. GrnMtGirl says:

    RIP Grasshopper

  17. geronimo says:

    So sad. However it happened, he’s gone and he and his family deserve sympathy, respect and privacy. And no judgement. RIP.

  18. gg says:

    I am so sad – what a tragic loss of a legend. He has left us an incredible body of work and had a long and resoundingly successful career. Cheers to him.

    Thailand can be a very dangerous place.

  19. emma says:

    RIP David Carradine

    As for Thailand being a weird and dangerous place, well any place can be weird and dangerous. I’ve been to Thailand numerous times and nothing bad has ever happen.

  20. n says:

    such a sad story.

    i enjoyed his work and found it hard to separate him from his small screen image on Kung fu.
    i really looked up to him in a strange way.

    thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time. may David rest in peace.

  21. tasteT says:

    We’ll never know the truth about his death.

    RIP

    I am going to goggle his wife I can’t place her.

  22. tasteT says:

    his wife Annie Carradine is nice looking, younger of course..
    he also fathered a daughter w/her who looks to be like 11

  23. czarina says:

    Deepest sympathies to his family and friends.
    On the topic of ‘self-pleasure’–auto erotic asphyxiation is actually the cause of many accidental deaths, more than people realize. I am not implying this was the cause of Carradine’s death just saying.
    Usually suicide does not take those closest to the person by surprise (there is often a long build up to it)–although I think it is one of the most tragic and terrible deaths for those left behind.
    In any case, as geronimo said, however he died, it’s a sad blow to those who loved him and to the audiences who admired him.

  24. queenie says:

    Hmmm…according to TMZ it was autoerotic asphyxiation, although they didn’t use this exact word.

  25. Ophelia says:

    Dammit.
    If he hung himself half naked, that usually only means one thing.
    I love that guy, I can’t believe he’s gone.

  26. Amy says:

    If it was auto-eroticism, then I sure hope the mainstream media won’t continue to refer to it as a suicide.

    The cops told the BBC that he was naked with a cord tied around his neck and penis. His manager said he spoke to him just before and David was in great spirits. The manager also calls the death “accidental.”

    Put two and two together, people. It’s completely tragic either way, but I don’t want him to be regarded as a suicide victim if he wasn’t.

  27. fizXgirl314 says:

    oh jeez, what a way to go… (if what some suggest is true that is )

  28. kiki says:

    autoerotic
    I told you so..
    was Michael Hutchsen singer who died the same way death ruled sucide or autoerotic??
    72 years old getting his groove on..

  29. Ana says:

    That is horrible. One of the worst things about suicide is the questions it leaves to be answered. He may have seemed happy and completely enthralled in his career but no one truly knows what was going on in his head.
    It is very sad…no matter what the cause of his death. I loved him in Kill Bill.

  30. Bodhi says:

    I really think that people need to stop speculating about the manner of death until something official comes out. TMZ & (sorry) the Thia police are hardly credible sources.

  31. Zakoog says:

    Autoerotic asphyxiation.

  32. pregnancy says:

    sorry to hear that.

  33. Ursula says:

    If it was suicide, then it is selfish because of his family, kids and loved ones. That said, some of these anti depressants make people suicidal. What a shame.

  34. eternalcanadian says:

    Totally shocking and bizarre how he died.

  35. Snoopchew says:

    What a beautiful actor, so soft spoken and we were mesmerized with his acting. It is better to remember him in this light and as he displayed his talent than to speculate his manner of demise.
    I hope to live as long a life.

  36. Jazz says:

    I always used to watch Kung Fu with my Dad when I was a kid. RIP David Carradine.

  37. Derf says:

    Hung Fu !!!!

  38. TaylorB says:

    AEA and suicide are very different things, if it was AEA as it sounds it was, it was a tragic accident and should be left at that, he wasn’t some sort of deviant, he did this own his own not to a child or another person, it just turned out tragically in this particular case. People who do AEA are not suicidal, they don’t expect to die, but sadly from time to time they do, very, very sad. Of course I hear/read about these cases and think ‘what the hell, that is terribly unsafe??’ but I can not judge them, not my job.

  39. Chris Kryer says:

    Kung Fu wanted the cord in his COFFIN too.

  40. Pyrochyde says:

    Suicide?? Really?? Hmmm a 72 year old man in Bangkok in a hotel room naked and strangeled and i think they forget to mention he had wire tied around his testicles as well as his neck. Suicide huh? Yea not buying it. Im thinking more along the lines of 15 year old prostitutes with S & M that went out of control.

  41. Richard Gioimo says:

    What ever happan he will be missed and
    person & freind.
    He had a good show in the 60’s and some in the 70’s.
    HE WILL BE MISSED SO MUCH

  42. Teddie Parmer says:

    My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. I agree,people need to stop 2nd guessing his death until the whole truth comes out. When you judge like that you make it much harder on the ones left behind.

  43. Me says:

    Carradine’s ex-wife, Marina Anderson, has written a book that promises to expose the real cause behind the actor’s bizarre death. The book is called “David Carradine: The Eye of My Tornado”.

  44. Спасибочки за информацию, буду юзать. 🙂

  45. Bangkok says:

    A Kung fu 70’s ICON – RIP David. Nearly 2 years since his ‘suicide’ – I hope his family find peace.