Best Known As: The star of TV's Kung Fu and the Kill Bill movies
Name at birth: John Arthur Carradine
Actor David Carradine shot to stardom in the early 1970s as the star of the television series Kung Fu (1972-75). He played Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest in exile wandering the American frontier of the late 1800s, attempting to live in cosmic harmony but using his fighting skills to whup the occasional nasty cowboy. Carradine suffered from type-casting after the role ended; he worked steadily, but often on stage and in low-budget movies. The cult status of Kung Fu led to a resurgence in his popularity in the 1990s and 2000s, culminating with his title role in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill movies (2003-04). His other films include Boxcar Bertha (1972, directed by Martin Scorsese), Death Race 2000 (1975, produced by Roger Corman), 1976's Bound for Glory, for which he received high praise for his portrayal of Woody Guthrie, The Serpent's Egg (1977, directed by Ingmar Bergman) and Lone Wolf McQuade (1983). He also wrote a 1995 autobiography, Endless Highway. Carradine died in 2009 in a hotel room in Thailand, where he was found hung in a closet. Police first suggested the death was suicide, but an autopsy ruled he died by "accidental asphyxiation."
Carradine was the son of Hollywood veteran John Carradine and half-brother to actors Robert and Keith Carradine (with whom he appeared in the 1980 movie The Long Riders)... He attended San Francisco State University... Carradine was married five times and divorced four. The BBC reported at his death that he was survived by his fifth wife, Annie Bierman, "and three children including actresses Calista and Kansas."
Career Highlights: Mr. Horn, Death Race 2000, The Long Riders
First Major Screen Credit: Bala Perdida (1959)
Biography
David Carradine is best known to the public for a single role, of Kwai Chang Caine, whom he portrayed during three seasons of the series Kung Fu (1972-1975), and in its successor series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993-1997). But in a career approaching its fifth decade, he has done memorable work in over 200 motion pictures and television dramas, numerous plays -- including a successful run on Broadway early on -- and has been a producer, director, writer, and composer for the screen as well.
He was born John Arthur Carradine, the eldest son of John Carradine, the beloved and very busy character actor, whose roles encompassed everything from John Steinbeck's Reverend Casey to Bram Stoker's Dracula. David Carradine's early adult life was one of exploration -- though born in Hollywood (or, perhaps, precisely because he had been), he tried on a lot of sides of living before he finally turned to acting as a profession, including a hitch in the army, an early marriage that produced one child, life among the beats in San Francisco, traveling around the country doing odd jobs and performing as a folk singer, and squeezing in some study of theater arts. He worked with various community and semi-professional dramatic companies in San Francisco; hitchhiked his way to New York; did Shakespeare in Akron, OH, and parts of New Jersey; and all of the other things that aspiring would-be actors are supposed to do. And he got a few early screen credits in television productions such as Armstrong Circle Theater ("Secret Document"), and in various series produced by Universal Pictures' ReVue television division, including episodes of The Virginian, Wagon Train, and Arrest & Trial, plus The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He also made his big-screen debut thanks to Universal with a small role in the R.G. Springsteen-directed western Taggart (1964). His real professional breakthrough came a year later on the Broadway stage, however, in Peter Shaffer's The Royal Hunt of the Sun, in a cast headed by Christopher Plummer. He enjoyed an extended run in the Broadway production, which was accompanied by the first round of publicity for Carradine, even then focusing on his unpredictable, iconoclastic nature. He was lured back to Hollywood by the chance to star in the series Shane, based on the George Stevens movie and the Jack Schaefer novel. He was able to put his own stamp on the role, quite different from the portrayal that Alan Ladd had delivered in the film; but the viewing public had been swamped by westerns for a decade, and the series never had a chance to find an audience, lasting only 16 episodes. From 1967 until 1972, he was occasionally seen in one-off roles in dramatic series such as Coronet Blue and The Name of the Game, and was in a remake of Johnny Belinda with Mia Farrow and Ian Bannen, but was most often seen in westerns, including The Violent Ones (1967) and The McMasters (1969) (playing a Native American in the latter). Villainous roles seemed to be what he was most often offered -- even in the the most interesting of his early-'70s vehicles, the drama Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring (1971), starring Sally Field, his presence as a somewhat larcenous street person lent an extra sinister undertow to the plot.
In 1972 he was approached about the possibility of starring in a proposed series that was easily the most offbeat western ever considered by a network up to that time: Kung Fu. The public had long since lost interest in traditional westerns, but here was a story that combined a quest with a tale of pursuit and necessarily included philosophical conflict never before addressed in series television. The role appealed to Carradine, and he got the part of Kwai Chang Caine, the Chinese-American hero, despite knowing nothing of martial arts. Drawing on his ability as a dancer at his meeting with the producers, he was able to prove with one well-placed kick at a point above his head that he could pull it off. The series ran for three seasons, during which time Carradine put an increasing amount of himself into the portrayal. And the public responded, especially viewers under 40, who resonated to the character and the man behind it. Kung Fu became one of those odd cult shows -- somewhat reminiscent of Star Trek (and, especially, the appeal of Leonard Nimoy's Spock) -- the fans of which were devoted beyond the usual casual weekly viewing. Carradine saw to it, however, even during the run of the series, that he kept busy on other projects, including the Martin Scorsese-directed Boxcar Bertha (1972), starring his paramour Barbara Hershey, and small roles in the Robert Altman revisionist detective film The Long Goodbye (1973) and Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973).
Kung Fu made Carradine a star, but he eventually left the series, owing to disagreements with the producers. His withdrawal from the series could have damaged his career, but Carradine was fortunate enough to latch on to a script that Roger Corman was planning to produce -- a new kind of action movie, Death Race 2000 (1975), became a huge underground hit and proved that Carradine had some measure of big-screen appeal. He followed this up with Cannonball (1976) and other action pictures done for Corman. And in the midst of those movies -- moneymakers all -- he also found the opportunity to star for the first time in a major, big-budget Hollywood feature, Bound for Glory (1976), portraying legendary folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie. Carradine put a lot of his own experience in music into the portrayal, and the movie -- directed by Hal Ashby -- was a critical success, but a box office disappointment. Good roles kept coming his way, however, not only through Corman but also from an unexpected quarter, Ingmar Bergman, who cast Carradine, in memorable turn, as a Jewish trapeze artist in The Serpent's Egg (1977), co-starring Liv Ullmann. Even some of the most routine movies in which he appeared during this period were often worth seeing solely for Carradine's performances, never more so than his work as Captain Gates in the submarine rescue drama Gray Lady Down (1978). Indeed, Carradine's scenes in the latter film have a completely different feel and dramatic texture from the rest of the movie, which was otherwise mostly worthless as anything except a way to kill 100 minutes or so.
Carradine made his directorial debut on a handful of episodes of Kung Fu. Upon leaving the series, he directed his first feature film, the drama You and Me (1975). The latter film co-starred Barbara Hershey and his brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine were in the cast. His career across the next few decades involved a mix of major feature films, such as The Long Riders (1980), and offbeat smaller scale pictures such as Q (1982), interspersed with more personal projects such as Americana (1981), for which he served as screenwriter, director, and producer, as well as starring as a taciturn Vietnam veteran who heals himself and a troubled Midwestern town by refurbishing an old carousel. During the 1990s, he also returned to the role of Kwai Chang Caine in the series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Among the best elements of the series were Carradine's interactions with his co-star, Robert Lansing (another Hollywood iconoclast), especially in the late episodes, when the latter actor was terminally ill. Even when he was doing action features such as Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) -- in which he played the antagonist to real-life martial arts expert Chuck Norris' hero -- Carradine maintained a reputation for quality in the nature of his own work, which served him in good stead in the years to come. Longtime fans, appreciative of his work since his days on Kung Fu, could always depend on him to deliver a worthwhile performance, even if the vehicles in which he worked were less than stellar, as was often the case -- outside of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues -- in the 1990s. The stars finally lined up in his favor again in 2003, when Carradine appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 with Uma Thurman, which led to his much-expanded part in the follow-up movie. Since those films, he has been busier than at any time in his career, with dozens of screen credits in the years that followed.
Carradine has written two books, Spirit of Shaolin and the autobiography Endless Highway, and has made a pair of popular instructional videos, David Carradine: T'ai Chi Workout and David Carradine: Kung Fu Workout. When not working, the actor enjoys painting, sculpting, and performing music. He also wrote several songs for the 2003 film American Reel, in which he starred as struggling singer/songwriter James Lee Springer. Carradine has three children, one each from his first two marriages, to Donna Lee Brecht (1960-1968) and Linda Gilbert (1977-1983), and one with Barbara Hershey, with whom he lived from 1972 to 1975. In 2009, he was found dead, hanged in a Bangkok hotel. He was 72 years old. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Carradine had a turbulent childhood. In 1942, when he was only 5, he almost succeeded in committing suicide[13] by hanging. He said that, because of the incident, his father burned his comic book collection, "Which was scarcely the point".[11] His parents were divorced as he was shuttled around foster homes, boarding and reform schools. He spent parts of his childhood in New York,[13] Massachusetts and even one miserable winter milking cows on a farm in Vermont[11][14]. He would often accompany his father while he performed summer theater through out the Northeast.[11]
Eventually, Carradine returned to California where he graduated from Oakland High School. He attended Oakland Junior College for a year before transferring to San Francisco State College where he studied drama and music theory.[11][13] There he wrote music for the drama department's annual revues while juggling work at menial jobs, a fledgling stage acting career and his studies. After he dropped out of SFSC, Carradine spent sometime with the "beatniks"[15] of San Francisco's North Beach and Venice, CA. During this time he collected unemployment insurance and sold baby pictures. He was also arrested once for disturbing the peace.[11]
Despite an attempt to dodge the draft,[11] in 1960 Carradine was inducted into the U.S. Army[13] where he drew pictures for training aids. That Christmas he married his high school sweetheart, Donna Lee Becht. While stationed at Fort Eustis, Virginia he helped to establish a theater company which became known as the "entertainment unit".[16] He met fellow inductee, Larry Cohen, who later cast him in Q, The Winged Serpent.[17] He also faced court-martial for shoplifting. In 1962, Donna gave birth to their daughter, Calista. Carradine was honorably discharged after a two-year tour.
In 1963, Carradine, who had by this time adopted the name David, to avoid confusion with his famous father, debuted on an episode of Armstrong Circle Theatre. The part led to other roles such as East Side/West Side, Arrest and Trial, Coronet Blue, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Trials of O'Brien, Gunsmoke, and 3 episodes of Ironside. Before long, he became a well regarded character actor. Other television roles are cataloged in his filmography.
For three seasons, David Carradine starred as a half-Chinese, half-Caucasian Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Caine on the ABC hit TV series Kung Fu (1972–1975) and was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for the role. The show, which took place in the "Old West", helped to popularize the martial arts and Eastern philosophy in the West and immortalized the character of Kwai Chang Caine, often referred to as "Grasshopper", in popular culture.
Although the choice of a Caucasian to play the role of Kwai Chang Caine upset some in the Asian community, the show served as steady employment for several Asian-American actors.[20] In addition to Keye Luke and Philip Ahn, who held leading roles in the cast as Caine's Shaolin masters, Robert Ito, James Hong, Benson Fong, Richard Loo and Victor Sen Yung frequently appeared in the series. Kung Fu ended when Carradine quit to pursue a movie career, but he reprised the role of Kwai Chang Caine in 1986 in Kung Fu: The Movie. Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, in his acting debut, portrayed his son.
Early in the 1990s, Carradine once again revised the role of Kwai Chang Caine inKung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993–97) playing the grandson of the original character of the same name. The series was recognized as a cult classic in Canada. Carradine starred in the program and served as Executive Producer and Director. The program offered him the opportunity to recreate the character for which he was most widely recognized. Also starring on Kung Fu: The Legend Continues was an unfamiliar struggling actor, spokesperson and singer from Toronto, Chris Potter. During this time Carradine's alcoholism escalated and he entered alcohol rehab. The show was canceled in 1997, after 5 1/2 seasons, and 88 episodes.
Directing Career
Carradine made his directorial debut on three episodes of Kung Fu. While still performing on Kung Fu, he tried his hand at directing some independent projects of his own. Americana (1983), took ten years to complete due to difficulty in financing. It featured Carradine in the starring role and several of his friends and family members in supporting roles. The film won the People's Choice Award at the Director's Fortnight at Cannes , but failed to achieve critical support or adequate distribution.[11][21] Other directorial attempts included You and Me (1975)[13], and two unreleased productions: Mata Hari, an epic that starred his daughter, Calista, and short musical called A Country Mile.
Throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s, Carradine's acting career suffered a decline. Although he continued to amass movie and television credits, few of his roles garnered much attention. Most of his work was issued "straight to home video". However, a few of his movies, such as The Warrior and the Sorceress, Sonny Boy and Circle of Iron (AKA; The Silent Flute) acquired cult followings. The latter film, in which he played four roles, Carradine considered to be among his best work.[22]
Meanwhile, he was featured in a Lipton tea commercial which first appeared during the Superbowl, 1994. The advertisement paid tribute to The Three Stooges while satirizing his role in Kung Fu.[23] In 1997, Carradine was awarded a star on the Hollywood "Walk of Fame". The presenters played an "April Fool's Day" prank on him by first unveiling a star that had the name of his brother, Robert, on it.[24]
In 2001, he appeared in the episode The Serpent of the syndicated tv series Queen of Swords as the sword wielding bandit El Serpiente filmed at Texas Hollywood studio's, home of many spaghetti westerns, Southern Spain. He took over hosting duties from his brother Keith on Wild West Tech on the History Channel, in 2005. By 2006, he had become the spokesman for Yellowbook, a publisher of independent telephone directories in the United States..
Carradine enjoyed a revival of his notoriety when he was cast in Quentin Tarantino's sequential Kill Bill movies, in 2003 and 2004. Many thought that his portrayal of the assassin extraordinaire, Bill, AKA: "The Snake Charmer", would earn him an Oscar nod-it did not. He did receive a Golden Globe nomination and a Saturn Award, for Best Supporting Actor[13].
The actor, who once received an award for being the hardest working member of his profession in Hollywood[11][25], still had approximately a dozen projects in "post-production" at the time of his death in 2009. Most of these roles were cameos or small parts in independent, direct to DVD, productions. Perhaps his last leading role was in Golden Boys (AKA: Chatham). Although the film had some solid features, including Carradine's performance, critics found the plot dull.[26] It had only a limited theater run before its release on DVD, and received no critical acclaim.
Martial Artist
Carradine knew nothing of the practice of kung fu at the time he was cast in the role of Kwai Chang Caine, instead he relied on his experience as a dancer for the part[15]. He had also had experience in sword fighting, boxing and street fighting on which to draw.[17] For the first half of the the original series, David Chow provided technical assistance with kung fu. Later, Kam Yuen provided the kung fu expertise. It was not until after the series was canceled that Carradine began to study kung fu, first from Yuen and eventually from Rob Moses, a student of Yuen's. He never considered himself a "master" of the art, but as an "evangelist" of kung fu.[27][28] By 2003 he had acquired enough expertise in the martial arts to produce and star in several instructional videos on Tai chi and Qi Gong.
Music career
In addition to his acting career, Carradine was a talented musician. He sang and played the piano, the guitar and the flute among other instruments.[29] His musical talents were often integrated into his screen performances. He performed several of Woody Guthrie's songs for the movie Bound for Glory. For the Kung Fu series he made flutes out of bamboo that he had planted on the Warner's Brother's lot which he played on the program. He later made several flutes for the movie Circle of Iron (AKA The Silent Flute) one of which he later played in Kill Bill[30]. Carradine wrote and performed the theme songs for at least two movies that he he starred in, Americana, and Sonny Boy. The first line from the Sonny Boy theme, Paint, is engraved on Carradine's headstone.[31] He wrote and performed several songs for American Reel and wrote the score for You and Me.[29] Carradine and his brother, Robert, also performed with a band, the Cosmic Rescue Team[32] (AKA Soul Dogs). The band primary performed in small venues and benefits.
Personal life
In 1968, David Carradine divorced his wife, Donna,(née Donna Lea Becht, born September 26 1937)[3][33]. She was the mother of his daughter Calista (born April 1962).
In 1969 he met Barbara Hershey while the two of them were working on Heaven With a Gun.[11] The pair began a domestic relationship that would last until 1975[34]. They appeared in other films together including Martin Scorcese's Boxcar Bertha. In 1972 they appeared in a nude Playboy spread, recreating some sex scenes from Boxcar Bertha[35]. That year Hershey gave birth to their son, Free[33](who later changed his name to Tom, much to his father's chagrin)[11] The relationship ended when Carradine began an affair with Season Hubley who had guest starred on Kung Fu. He was engaged to Hubley for a time, but they did not marry.[11][13]
He had another daughter, Kansas (born April 19 1978) by second wife Linda (née Linda Anne Gilbert, born March 16 1950) to whom he was married from 1977-1983. This marriage ended in divorce as did the two that followed. He was married to Gail Jensen from 1986-1997 and to Marina Anderson from 1999-2003.
On December 26, 2004, Carradine married the widowed Annie Bierman[3](née Anne Kirstie Fraser, born December 21 1960) at the seaside Malibu home of his friend, Michael Madsen. Vicki Roberts, his attorney and longtime friend of his wife, performed the ceremony. With this marriage he acquired three stepdaughters, Amanda Eckelberry (born November 29 1989), Madeleine Rose (born April 4 1995) and Olivia Jane (born 1998) and a stepson, Max Richard (born 1998),[34]
On June 4, 2009, David Carradine was found dead in his room at the Swissôtel Nai Lert Park Hotel on Wireless Road, near Sukhumvit Road, in central Bangkok, Thailand.[5][6] He was in Bangkok to shoot his latest film, Stretch.[5] A police official said Carradine was found hanging by a rope in the room's closet,[36][37] causing immediate speculation that his death was suicidal. However, evidence suggested that his death was the result of autoerotic asphyxiation. Two autopsies were conducted and concluded that the death was not caused by suicide. [38][39][40][41][42][43] The cause of death has become widely accepted as "accidental asphyxiation".
Immediately following his death, two of Carradine's ex-wives,Gail Jensen[1][44] and Marina Anderson,[45][46][47] stated publically that his sexual interests included the practice of self-bondage. Anderson, who had plans to publish a "tell all book" about her marriage to Carradine, said in an interview with Access Hollywood, "There was a dark side to David, there was a very intense side to David. People around him know that." Previously in her divorce filing she had claimed that "It was the continuation of abhorrent and deviant sexual behavior which was potentially deadly."[48]
Photographs, supposedly of Carradine at the death scene, as well as photographs of his autopsied body, were widely circulated in newspapers and on the the internet.[49] Finally, his family, represented by his brothers, Keith and Robert, pleaded with the public and the press to let them mourn their loved one in peace[50]. For the most part, people respected the request, as speculation about suicide, accidental death and even murder abated.
Carradine's funeral was held on June 13, 2009 in Los Angeles. His bamboo casket[51] was carried in a white hearse from Groman Eden Mortuary to his burial at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.[52] Among the many stars and family members that attended his private memorial were: Lucy Liu, Tom Selleck, Frances Fisher, James Cromwell, Steve Railsback, and Chris Potter. His grave was marked in December of 2009. The monument proclaimed him to be "The Barefoot Legend" and included a quote from "Paint", a song he wrote and performed as the theme for the movie "Sonny Boy", as an epitaph.[31]
