Kill Bill Actor David Carradine Dead, 72

Actor David Carradine, chosen over Bruce Lee to play Kwai Chang Caine in the classic 1960's TV series "Kung Fu" and recent star of Quenton Tarrentino's Kill Bill, has been found dead in Thailand. He died at a hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. Carrdine was 72.

CNN.com reports that Carradine's death is under investigation. No further details area available.

Carradine starred in the Western series "Shane" in 1966, but was better known for "Kung Fu", which also had a Western setting and ran from 1971 to 1975 on ABC. Carradine appeared in a TV movie sequel, "Kung Fu: The Movie" in 1986 with Bruce Lee's son,. Brandon Lee. In the 1990's the concept was again revived for a four-season series, "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues", set in an unnamed present day Midwestern city. That series emphasized Shaolin mysticism and legend and featured the same-named grandson of Kwai Chang Caine and his police detective son.

David Carrdine said he liked to take chances and he obviously liked variety, mixing roles in A-movies like Kill Bill, Bound for Glory in which he played folk singer Woody Guthrie, Martin Scorsese's debut film Boxcar Bertha, and the Mel Gibson/Goldie Hawn comedy-adventure Bird on a Wire with roles in B-movies like Future Force, Q-The Flying Serpent, Evil Toons, and cult favorite Death Race 2000. In all, he appeared in 100 films according to the Internet Movie Database, as well as in TV movies and series, and on Broadway.

Carradine studied music theory and composition at San Francisco State College before becoming an actor and recorded 60 tracks and even sang in some of his films. He learned to play the flute that his character, Caine, used in the original "Kung Fu" series.

Carradine said when the "Kung Fu" series began, the challenge was to provide action while getting around the violence-on-TV limitations of the period. Martial arts allowed the show to circumvent those limitations with sparring matches labeled as training and practice.

Carradine brought a remarkable grace to the martial arts as practiced by Caine that he said he owed to his training as a dancer. Carradine didn't know kung fu at the beginnng, but as the series continued he picked it up and came to appreciate the kung fu philosophy as well. He recorded a number of popular exercise videos with a kung fu and martial arts theme.

Member of a well-known family of actors headed by the late John Carrdine, David was John's oldest son, married five times. He lived in Los Angeles with his fifth wife, Annie Bierman.

Actor David Catrradine Found Dead, CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/06/04/obit.david.carradine/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

David Carradine, Internet Movie Databae http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001016/