R.I.P. David Carradine [Archive] - Absolute Write Water Cooler

whistlelock

06-04-2009, 07:24 PM

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5is2oJh-PXCbC-Hy5C61CoUOalTngD98JTGUG1

Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" who also had a wide-ranging career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

Apparently, the adventures of Kaine have finally come to an end.

Rest in peace.

melaniehoo

06-04-2009, 07:25 PM

Stew21

06-04-2009, 07:25 PM

Very sad.

eta: merged threads.

BenPanced

06-04-2009, 07:26 PM

Unfortunately, there's currently a conflict on how it happened. His publicist says it was natural causes and the Thai media reports it was suicide.

Still, my best wishes to his family and friends.

icerose

06-04-2009, 07:32 PM

I would much prefer natural causes over suicide myself. For one thing it means less pain for the family.

Plot Device

06-04-2009, 07:36 PM

OMG! And I had him all picked out for a movie role in my latest fantasies of cast-your-own-screenplay!

He was far too young to have died! He had at least another awesome butt-kicking 20 years left in him.

RIP :(

Perks

06-04-2009, 07:47 PM

Wow! That's so sad. Suicide at 72? You would think if you'd made it so far, you'd have ironed out all the fears and turmoil.

That's terrible. Godspeed, sir.

callalily61

06-04-2009, 07:53 PM

Williebee

06-04-2009, 07:57 PM

sux

Seaclusion

06-04-2009, 08:09 PM

Kung Fu was one of the most unique shows of it's time. Carradine was absolutely awesome in the role of Caine. I'm very sad at his passing.

Richard

Cyia

06-04-2009, 08:11 PM

I hope this turns out to not be suicide :( Either way, it's going to be hard on his family, but natural causes wouldn't leave so many questions for them to try and find answers for.

Enzo

06-04-2009, 08:13 PM

Sad news indeed.
I used to watch Kung Fu as a teenager.

Perks

06-04-2009, 08:13 PM

If it's not a suicide then someone hung him in his hotel room with the curtain pull, so that's not any better.

It's just awful.

ChristineR

06-04-2009, 08:19 PM

The conflicting reports are not suggesting it was murder, but that the cords were being used for sexual purposes--either it was an accident, or he died of natural causes. That's all pretty unreliable stuff at this point. :(

P.H.Delarran

06-04-2009, 08:28 PM

oh man. RIP

aadams73

06-04-2009, 08:30 PM

WHOA!! I guess something finally did Kill Bill. :(

Celia Cyanide

06-04-2009, 08:38 PM

He rocks. I will go home and watch Kill Bill 2 in his honor...and I hate Tarrantino!

Perks

06-04-2009, 08:42 PM

I loved Kill Bill.

aadams73

06-04-2009, 08:45 PM

I loved Kill Bill.

Me too. Both parts were practically perfect. Anyone remember when he did North and South? Wowza, he was a piece of work in that.

rhymegirl

06-04-2009, 08:51 PM

My husband bought the complete series of Kung Fu last Christmas as a gift to himself. He loved watching it and found the shows still good after all this time.

What a shame. If it was suicide, one has to wonder why. Maybe he was diagnosed with cancer or something and didn't want to die a slow death.

dgiharris

06-04-2009, 09:15 PM

Is it just me, or does something not sound right. Granted the reporting is sketchy now, but my spidey sense tells me something is off here.

Mel...

dgiharris

06-04-2009, 09:16 PM

Is it just me, or does something not sound right. Granted the reporting is sketchy now, but my spidey sense tells me something is off here.

Mel...

William Haskins

06-04-2009, 09:27 PM

you can say that again.

Diana Hignutt

06-04-2009, 09:58 PM

I loved Kill Bill.

Fabulous movies. His soliloquy on Superman (in the film)was delivered with perfection.

Carradine also beat out Bruce Lee for the role in Kung Fu.

He will be missed.

Pamster

06-04-2009, 09:59 PM

I just got home from the store and am STUNNED at this news. How I hope it was natural causes and NOT suicide....So dang sad! :(

brainstorm77

06-04-2009, 10:31 PM

ChunkyC

06-04-2009, 10:39 PM

Oh no ... I hope the truth comes out, no matter what it is. His family needs to know what really did happen.

Goodbye, grasshopper. :(

aspiringwriter

06-04-2009, 10:41 PM

I was equally shocked...a very, very sad day.

som1luvsmi

06-04-2009, 10:57 PM

Is it just me, or does something not sound right. Granted the reporting is sketchy now, but my spidey sense tells me something is off here.

Mel...

It does seem a little odd that he arrived in Thailand Tuesday to film a movie and allegedly killed himself the next day.

I hear you, dgi.

Zoombie

06-04-2009, 11:35 PM

How horrible!

Though...I do think that he was a BIT unfair to Clark Kent...he isn't that weak and bumbling...

dclary

06-04-2009, 11:42 PM

In the few times I met him, and spent time at his home, it was appeared to me that Carradine had an infrequent problem with substance abuse. I can only guess that whatever tragedy occurred in Hong Kong, drugs or alcohol was probably involved.

Very sad. He was always gregarious and friendly, and Kung Fu changed my life, as it did countless others.

Zoombie

06-04-2009, 11:45 PM

...whoa!

You *met* Carradine!?

Ken

06-04-2009, 11:46 PM

... farwell grasshopper :-(

ps Alcohol and drugs be damned!
>:-(

robeiae

06-05-2009, 12:28 AM

Godspeed, David.

http://www.cinemastrikesback.com/news/new%20dailies/DeathRace2000/deathrace3-1024.jpg

Manix

06-05-2009, 12:37 AM

I have carried a deep love of martial arts in my heart all my life because of Mr. Carradine. He left a legacy of love for the martial arts culture that was unduplicatable, even by other "greats" of his time.

Cybernaught

06-05-2009, 12:44 AM

There was no better end for Carradine than the five point palm exploding heart technique. He walked to his death with dignity and honor. I shall embrace that final image and retain it. The only fitting death for the master.

RIP Grasshopper.

Manix

06-05-2009, 12:50 AM

My favorite image is in the original show where he finally leaves the monastery by picking up the huge cast iron brazier with both forearms and sears the images of the dragon and the tiger into his skin.

dclary

06-05-2009, 01:04 AM

...whoa!

You *met* Carradine!?

LOL yeah. And lots of other kung fu/karate guys: http://davidwclary.com/articles.aspx

Shadow_Ferret

06-05-2009, 01:13 AM

I just heard....
:cry:

RIP.

KTC

06-05-2009, 01:21 AM

Wow! That's so sad. Suicide at 72? You would think if you'd made it so far, you'd have ironed out all the fears and turmoil.

That's terrible. Godspeed, sir.

My thoughts, too.

R.I.P.

maestrowork

06-05-2009, 01:41 AM

What if there's foul play? He's reported to be working on a movie in Thailand. I kind of doubt someone would commit suicide during a movie shoot... And yeah, why 72? Something doesn't sound right.

A friend of mine worked with him in the movie Evil Toons and he said there was a scene in which D.C.'s character hanged himself. It's weird how life imitates fiction.

What a sad ending. RIP, Mr. Carradine.

Cybernaught

06-05-2009, 01:51 AM

I kind of doubt someone would commit suicide during a movie shoot....

Was Uwe Boll directing it by any chance? That would explain everything.

backslashbaby

06-05-2009, 03:10 AM

Plot Device

06-05-2009, 03:11 AM

I see just three possibilities here:

1) straight up suicide (which I don't believe because he was doing a movie shoot)
2) foul play (a hair-raising prospect)
3) accidental death via a session of auto-erotic asphyxiation gone awry

And I'm banking on #3. Not a terribly honorable way to go out, but less devastating for his family than suicide.

Plot Device

06-05-2009, 03:13 AM

The buzz from Thai friends is that it was bondage - in one way or another - gone wrong. Apparently he was found curled up in the wardrobe, still tied up (sexually, as well).

Of course, sources in Thailand are notoriously hard to trust about any 'farang' death, frankly. If his friends didn't arrive on the scene, I don't know that I'd ever believe any story of how he was found, autopsy, etc :(

Possibility #4) a hooker he hired for the afternoon messed up her role in one of his bondage fantasies, and when she realized he was dead she split. And at that point we have a case of manslaughter.

::ETA::

Of course, I might be wrong in assuming that said hypothetical hooker was a woman.

Susan Gable

06-05-2009, 03:19 AM

I started out writing fanfic for KF:TLC.

:cry:

R.I.P. David.

Susan G.

Sage

06-05-2009, 03:35 AM

:(

I was obsessed with KF:TLC when I was younger.

Ken

06-05-2009, 03:41 AM

Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Young Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Caine: No.
Po: Do you hear the grasshopper that is at your feet?
Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_(TV_series)

S.C. Denton

06-05-2009, 11:17 AM

Fabulous movies. His soliloquy on Superman (in the film)was delivered with perfection.

Carradine also beat out Bruce Lee for the role in Kung Fu.

He will be missed.

I loved Carradine and his work. It's terribly sad, and it certainly does sound fishy considering the fact that he was so happy to have life being breathed into his career after the Kill Bill movies. According to his manager there was no way he committed suicide. I don't know how concrete that information is since it was from an internet article.

Not to be an ass but I just thought I'd pass along the reason Bruce didn't get that role wasn't because he was beat out by David, it was because the studios felt he was too Chinese to play a Chinese person. The long trend of non-Chinese people playing Chinese people was still prevalent.

Carradine played the role beautifully and I'm so glad he got it, but I think Lee was just as good an actor and that he also was never given the opportunity to fulfill his potential. Both were like Icebergs we only got to see the ten percent on the surface. Bruce died so young as to not get the chance, but David was just never taken as seriously as he should have been.

Diana Hignutt

06-05-2009, 03:59 PM

Not to be an ass but I just thought I'd pass along the reason Bruce didn't get that role wasn't because he was beat out by David, it was because the studios felt he was too Chinese to play a Chinese person. The long trend of non-Chinese people playing Chinese people was still prevalent.

.

Yeah, I know. Still he got the role and Lee didn't. So, in that sense he beat him out.

Ken

06-05-2009, 04:07 PM

... probably Lee didn't get the role because he wouldn't have been able to control his fists of fury ;-) Caradine had a mellower temperment. Both were awesome, needless to say, and are missed :-(

Diana Hignutt

06-05-2009, 04:11 PM

And, it's starting to look more like accidental death by auto-erotic asphyxiation.

S.C. Denton

06-05-2009, 05:51 PM

Oddly enough the thought of that sits better with me than that he purposefully killed himself. I fear with the circumstances being as they were we probably won't ever know what really happened.

Did anyone else catch the interview on Larry King Live with Quentin, Michael Madsen, and Rob Sneider? In it Larry mentioned that a person that had either phoned, or e-mailed in said that in a way David might've thought the whole mysterious death aspect fitting.

Pamster

06-05-2009, 10:00 PM

I just saw something now on TMZ that said they are saying his hands were tied, BEHIND his back, I dunno about you but that totally reeks of foul play IMO....

dclary

06-05-2009, 10:03 PM

I just saw something now on TMZ that said they are saying his hands were tied, BEHIND his back, I dunno about you but that totally reeks of foul play IMO....

If you've ever played with self bondage you'll know that's not as impossible as it sounds.

Pamster

06-06-2009, 01:20 AM

Ugh, no....

*never ceases to be amazed*

ChristineR

06-06-2009, 01:46 AM

There's so much crazy stuff being said right now--I'm just going to wait for the autopsy and the police report. If there was someone else in the room, they'll figure that out eventually. If it was a heart attack, or drugs, they'll figure that out also.

It's fairly easy to tie your own hands behind your back, but not so easy to get loose. If his hands really were securely tied behind his back and there was a rope around his neck and around a closet rod, then either he had a knife somewhere he could reach it, or he expected someone else to be untying him.