Thursday, June 4, 2009

David Carradine, 1936-2009. R.I.P.

Actor David Carradine has been found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok where he was working on a movie. He was 72. It is believed he died of natural causes.

Carradine is best known for his starring role in the TV series Kung Fu which aired on ABC from 1972-1975. I remember watching this show in the early 1980s with the family on Saturday nights. The show had a quiet esoteric quality rarely seen on TV these days. Yes, I am having a flashback Grasshopper.

The subsequent Kung Fu series featuring Carradine in the 1990s had none of those qualities and was like any run of the mill action adventure TV series airing any Saturday afternoon at around 5 p.m.

After Kung Fu went off the air, Carradine starred as Woody Guthrie in the 1976 Hal Ashby film Bound For Glory.

Younger fans might remember him as the villain in the two Kill Bill movies directed by Quentin Tarantino in 2003 and 2004.

1 comment:

grasshopper said...

the Kung Fu master will always be a source of wisdom for his students...