5 Jun 2009

'Kung Fu' actor Carradine found dead

8:06 am on 5 June 2009

American actor David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room on Thursday. He was 72.

A Thai police official said the actor was found hanging from a rope. Lieutenant Colonel Pirom Jantrapirom said there were no signs of other people in the room.

A spokesperson for the actor's Los Angeles-based talent manager said Carradine was in Thailand working on a film.

After working on Broadway in The Deputy and The Royal Hunt of the Sun opposite Christopher Plummer, Carradine earned a spot on Hollywood's map in the 1960s in TV westerns such as Wagon Train and The Virginian as well as his starring role in a TV version of hit western movie Shane.

But it was the role of Kwai Chang Caine, the wandering monk in Kung Fu, the series that aired on US television starting in 1972, that earned the actor his greatest fame.

He also appeared in movies such as director Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2.