Kill Bill and Kung Fu star David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room, BBC correspondent Jonathan Head has reported.The 72-year-old was in Thailand filming his latest film Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder.Mr Binder said the news was "shocking", adding: "He was full of life, always wanting to work... a great person."More soon.
David Carradine Found Dead in Hotel RoomOriginally posted Thursday June 04, 2009 10:05 AM EDTOscar-nominated actor David Carradine, best known for his leading role of Kwai Chang Caine on TV's Kung Fu in the 1970s, died Wednesday in Bangkok, where he was shooting a film, his manager confirmed Thursday. The star was 72. According to manager Chuck Binder, the movie's producer found Carradine dead in his hotel room. Binder told Fox News the death is "shocking and sad. He was full of life, always wanting to work ... a great person." Citing Thai police sources, the BBC reports that a hotel maid discovered the American actor in a closet with a rope around his neck and body.Married five times and divorced four – he is survived by his widow, Annie Bierman, whom he married in 2004 – Carradine was nominated as Best Actor for his role as folksinger Woody Guthrie in 1976's Bound for Glory. Among his later screen roles was in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, in which he played Bill.Varied and Long CareerAs profiled in PEOPLE in 1992, Carradine was born in Hollywood to the actor John Carradine and his first wife, Ardanelle, and was just 7 when his parents divorced. Shuttled between the two, he grew up in boarding schools on both coasts. Although he was orphaned emotionally, he did become close to the seven stepbrothers and half brothers he would accumulate during Dad's four marriages: Ardanelle's older son, Bruce; Chris, Keith and Bobby (whose mother was actress Sonia Sorel); Mike Bowen (Sonia's son from an earlier marriage); and Mike and Dale Grimshaw (John's stepsons by third wife Doris Rich).By 1970, Carradine says, "I had a house in the Hollywood Hills that virtually every brother has lived in. It was like this safe harbor. We all took care of each other." David's acting breakthrough – as an Inca king on Broadway in 1965's The Royal Hunt of the Sun when he was 29 – came only after lean years of studying music and ballet at San Francisco State, a brief Army hitch and a life-support gig as a prune picker.
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Carradine 'Died During Auto-Erotic Sex Act' David Carradine may have died accidentally from suffocation or heart failure during an auto-erotic sex act, according to Thai police. The Kung Fu and Kill Bill star was found with a noose around his neck and another rope around his genitals in a wardrobe in his hotel room in Bangkok. Police commander Lieutenant General Worapong Siewpreecha said it was unclear whether the 72-year-old killed himself or died from suffocation or heart failure due to ejaculation."There was a rope tied around his neck and another rope tied at his sex organ, and the two ropes were tied together and hung in the closet," he said. "Under these circumstances we cannot be sure that he committed suicide but he may have died from masturbation." A post-mortem is expected later while forensic police have already dusted Carradine's hotel room and are testing a drink found there. Forensic expert Porntip Rojanasunan said the death appeared to have been caused by an "auto-erotic accident"."It's not suicide or murder but he died ... after masturbation," he said.Initially, police said the death was being treated as a suspected suicide. Michael Hutchence, singer with Australian band INXS, died in similar circumstances in 1997.