MUMBAI: Star of the 1970s TV series Kung Fu and the Kill Bill movies, David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel yesterday in what Thai police initially said was a suicide, but now suspect to be a tragic accident.
Police said 72-year-old Carradine was found with lengths of cord wrapped around his neck and other parts of his body, including his penis. The revelations have given rise to speculation the actor died from erotic asphyxiation, a practice that instigates sexual arousal by depriving the brain of oxygen.
The US embassy in the Thai capital confirmed the death. Carradinem was in Thailand to shoot a film called Stretch.
“He was found in his hotel room in Bangkok but the cause of death has not yet been established,” an embassy official said. Carradine‘s manager Chuck Binder described the death as “accidental”.
Police said Carradine‘s body was found around 11:30am local time on 4th June, hanging by his neck in the closet of his hotel room. An initial report suggested he had been in rigor mortis(“dead”) for at least 12 hours. Local police officer Pirom Janthapirom said security cameras showed footage of no-one else going in or out of Carradine‘s hotel room.
The death came just three days before the end of filming for the movie.
Carradine was the son of prominent actor John Carradine and part of an acting family that includes brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine. Born on December 8, 1936, during Hollywood‘s Golden Age of cinema, he first entered showbusiness via musical theatre on New York‘s Broadway.
While best known for his role as the fugitive half-Chinese Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV drama Kung Fu, Carradine had a long a varied career in film. He appeared in Martin Scorsese‘s Boxcar Bertha in 1972, and played legendary folk singer
Woody Guthrie in the 1976 film Bound for Glory, that garnered him a Golden Globe nomination.
Leave a Reply