David Carradine Found Dead In Thai Hotel Room

Multiple sources are reporting that David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV show “Kung Fu” as well as an acclaimed film star, was found dead in his hotel room in the Thai capital Bangkok.

In the city shooting a film, he reportedly did now show up for a cast and crew dinner on Wednesday night and was discovered the next morning.

Michael Turner, a spokesman from the US Embassy, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor, who was part of a family of a venerated Hollywood family, including his father John Carradine and brothers Bruce, Robert, and Keith. Turner said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

Various Thai newspapers and websites reportedly cite anonymous police sources that report Carradine was found hanged in his luxury hotel room, where he’d been checked in since Tuesday.

The Thai newspaper The Nation reported that the preliminary police investigation found that Carradine was hanged with a cord used with the room’s curtains, that he had been dead for at least 12 hours, and that there were no signs of struggle in the room.

Carradine had appeared in more than 100 feature films throughout his career with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. He first began in TV in the 1960’s before reaching fame as the traveling Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the hit TV series “Kung Fu”, later semi-reprising the role as Caine’s grandson of the same name in the TV series “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues” in the 1990’s. He later rose again in the public eye starring as the villainous genius assassin Bill in Quentin Tarentino’s two-part “Kill Bill”.

Our thoughts and prayers here at Shockya.com go out to his family and friends. He will be missed.

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By Costa Koutsoutis (Source: New York Times, BBC, The Hollywood Reporter)