David Carradine, of “Kung Fu” fame, is dead

It finally dawned on me that I no longer belong to the hip generation when Kung Fu instead of Kill Bill came to mind upon hearing of the death of David Carradine. 

Kung Fu, of course, was the 1972 television series that made Carradine famous.  And Kill Bill was the 2003 movie that made him famous … again. 

Actually, it stands as an uncanny parallel that, just as the fame John Travolta attained with Saturday Night Fever in 1977 went fallow until Quentin Tarantino featured him in Pulp Fiction in 1994, so too the fame Carradine attained with Kung Fu went fallow until Quentin Tarantino featured him in Kill Bill.

This is not to say that Carradine had to resort to waiting tables.  In fact, like his father, John, and half-brothers, Keith, Robert and Bruce, Carradine was a very busy character actor who garnered “hundreds of credits on television and in the movies.” But here’s a little insight on how much he resented being on Hollywood’s B-list, which he shared in a 2004 interview with the Associated Press:

There isn’t any anything that Anthony Hopkins or Clint Eastwood or Sean Connery or any of those old guys are doing that I couldn’t do.  All that was ever required was somebody with Quentin’s courage to take and put me in the spotlight.

Little did anybody know, however, that the most dramatic and suspenseful roles he played were in real life, and that acting out one of them would probably be the cause of his sudden death.

Specifically, Marina Anderson, the most recent ex-wife of the five-times married Carradine, alleged during their divorce proceedings, rather prophetically, that he had a fetish for “abhorant (sic) [and] deviant sexual behavior which was potentially deadly.”  What’s more, she alleged that he engaged in a long-term incestuous relationship with a relative, but that her:

… pleas for him to get counseling in regards to this matter were ignored and he wanted no part in the healing process….

(The Smoking Gun)

I’d say those are legitimate grounds for divorce.  Of course allegations made during divorce proceedings are often exaggerated for effect. But these ones lend credence to reports that Carradine was found hanging naked and dead in a Bangkok hotel closet with a rope tied around his genitals, and wearing a black wig and fishnet stockings. This, as is generally known, is entirely consistent with a bungled attempt to attain maximum sexual gratification by autoerotic asphyxiation.

A little TMI…?

Oddly enough, Carradine always came across in real life so much like the character he played in Kung Fu, namely: Kwai Chang Caine, a half-Chinese, half-American Shaolin monk who was a martial arts master and mystical peacenik.  And now we’ll never know for certain if he was a spousal abuser or a sexual pervert. On the other hand, there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that he was into some pretty freaky shit….

Meanwhile, but for those divorce papers, his death might have been ruled a suicide, or even a ritualistic murder.  As it stands, however, this seems to have been a tragic accident.

Unfortunately, Carradine’s body of work will now be distinguished by this final act.  No doubt this is why his family is trying so desperately to preserve his legacy by alleging foul play. 

Never mind that, if he went when he came, it was probably not a bad way to go….  Sorry.

Farewell “Grasshopper”