In Memory of 'Kung Fu' Actor David Carradine: 15 Years After His Tragic Accidental Death

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It's been fifteen years since charismatic actor David Carradine, star of the groundbreaking 1970s Eastern-Western Kung Fu, died at only 72 of an accidental asphyxiation on June 3, 2009. This is his story.

A Closer Look

David Carradine was born on December 8, 1936, in Los Angeles, the eldest son of actor John Carradine (who died in 1988) and his wife Ardanelle Abigail (McCool) Carradine (who died in 1989).

David's father, along with his half-brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine, each made appearances on Kung Fu, which originally aired on ABC from 1972 to 1975. Eleven years later, the Carradine family reunited in an episode of Lee Majors' TV series, The Fall Guy.

Before, During and After Kwai Chang Caine

David Carradine attended San Francisco State College, where he studied music theory and composition. While composing melodies for the Drama Department's annual revues, he became interested in acting, and joined a Shakespearean repertory.

Following a two-year tour in the U.S. Army, Carradine worked in New York as a commercial artist, and found fame on the Broadway stage. There, he starred in The Deputy and The Royal Hunt of the Sun.

By 1966, Carradine had returned to Los Angeles, where he won the lead in the short-lived TV Western, Shane (based on the classic 1953 feature film of the same name).

In 1972, he was cast opposite his future love Barbara Hershey (with whom he would have a son named Free, later known as Tom Carradine ) in Martin Scorsese's first Hollywood movie Boxcar Bertha.

Soon after, Carradine became Kwai Chang Caine, the half-Shaolin/half-American fugitive monk of the Old West who fled the Far East.

Back to the Big Screen

After tremendous success with the mystical Kung Fu series (which was created by Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander), David Carradine ended the show (and his relationship with Barbara Hershey) in 1975, and returned to the big screen.

In the process, Carradine created several flutes for the 1978 motion picture Circle of Iron, one of which he also played in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, during a career resurgence in 2003.

In between those two films, Carradine made others, and returned to the role of Kwai Chang Caine twice. He first reprised Caine in a 1986 TV-reunion film, Kung Fu: The Movie (which co-starred Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, who did not create the original Kung Fu as has been eroneously reported in the past).

Carradine played Caine again in Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, a syndicated sequel series that aired in the mid-1990s.

Deadly Flashback

The theatrical cinematic technique known as the "Flashback" was frequently utilized on the original Kung Fu series to showcase the earlier life in China of David Carradine's character.

In Carradine's memoir, Spirit of the Shaolin, he shared what became an unfortunate foreshadow to the end of his life - minus the suicide element.

Carradine explained in the book how after his father's wife had a series of miscarriages, he discovered that she had had repeated illegal abortions without his knowledge. That resulted in her inability to carry a child to full term.

At the time, Carradine was only 5 years old and, due to his father's marital discord, David nearly succeeded in committing suicide by hanging.

Ruled Not a Suicide

Decades later his traumatic childhood experience, David Carradine died from accidental asphyxiation. Carradine's body was found hanging in the closet of his Bangkok hotel on June 4, 2009.

In a report documented by the press, Dr. Michael Baden, who was hired by the late actor’s family, said, Carradine "He didn’t die of natural causes, and he didn’t die of suicidal causes from the nature of the ligatures around the body, so that leaves some kind of accidental death."

Baden also clarified that Carradine’s hands were tied above his head and not behind his back, as some had previously chronicled. Baden's documentation also did not rule out the possibility that the former Kung Fu star died of auto-erotic asphyxiation, though he also did not cite that as the cause of expiration.

Results from an earlier autopsy performed on Carradine after his death were unclear, though on June 11, Baden did publicly state Carradine's demise was not suicide.

In the End

David Carradine died long before his time, but his pioneering TV show, Kung Fu, left an indelible mark. The series helped to break the Hollywood stereotype of Asian culture; introduced Eastern thought to the American mainstream, and gave gainful employment to countless Asian-American actors; all just as President Nixon held historic political converstions with China's Chairman Mao.