Actor David Carradine, who starred as a wandering monk in the 1970s television series Kung Fu, was found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok, where he was working on a movie. He was 72.
Police were investigating the cause of death, said Lori Binder, a representative for Carradine’s Los Angeles-based talent manager Chuck Binder.
Binder said Carradine, a member of a family of performers and son of well-known character actor John Carradine, was in Thailand to shoot a film called Stretch.
She declined to give further details of his death while it was under investigation.
United States embassy officials in Bangkok also said Carradine had died but did not have any details.
”I can confirm that David Carradine passed away in Bangkok. We extend our condolences to his family,” one official told Reuters.
Carradine began his career in TV westerns such as Wagon Train and The Virginian in the 1960s but it was the role of Caine, the wandering monk in Kung Fu, that earned the actor his greatest fame.
The series aired on United States television starting in 1972 and immediately won a large fan base among those who marveled at the action spawned by the martial arts expert as he traveled through America’s Old West.
The show spawned a movie and numerous other offshoots.
Although Carradine starred in numerous TV shows and movies in subsequent years — including director Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 — it was the role of Caine in Kung Fu for which he was always best known. – Reuters