Thursday, June 4, 2009

David Carradine (1936-2009)


David Carradine died in an apparent suicide yesterday. I am a fan of his work, particularly his '70s heyday, when he made Bound for Glory, The Long Riders, and Death Race 2000, and starred as Kwai Chang Cain in the TV series "Kung Fu." Having read a couple of his memoirs, Endless Highway and The Kill Bill Diary, I kind of feel like I knew the guy.

I have a particular fondness for his film Americana, a labor of love based on Henry Morton Robinson's novel The Perfect Round, filmed in 1973 and finally completed in 1982. Carradine directed and played the lead, opposite Barbara Hershey, his wife at the time. I later reviewed it for Viewpoints.com, and you can read that review HERE.

In his writings, Carradine came off as a proud man, a seeker, an optimist, and a bit of a horndog. Not the kind of a dude who'd hang himself in a Bangkok hotel room.

He's the only one who knows and he isn't talking.

4 comments:

JM Dobies said...

It's murder, baby:

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=412699&gt1=28103

Just like Bruce Lee.

JM Dobies said...

Or not.

Perhaps a mastubation accident. Or so the Ninjas would have you believe.

JM Dobies said...

misspelled "masturbation." That's a laugh.

JM Dobies said...

Actually, I was right: looks like it was murder.

Despite the shady circumstances surrounding his death, he was a legend.