MALLINation

David Carradine, the eternally zenlike star of Kung Fu on TV and recepient of one of wunderdirector Quentin Tarantino’s late-career comebacks in Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 was found hanged today in his Bangkok hotel room. It’s not clear at this time if the death is a suicide. Carradine was a scion of one of America’s premier acting families including father John (brilliant in the recently re-issued Fritz Lang film Manhunt as a gauntly menacing Nazi spy) and brothers Robert and Keith as well as his neice Martha Plimpton.

Carradine first found fame on television starting with the small screen version of the western classic Shane before the much-loved Kung Fu, which was revived by Carradine in the early 90s as Kung Fu: The Kegend Continues. Carradine’s underplaying in the show could sometimes be so minimal as to be nonexistent but he took martial arts and eastern philosophy fairly seriously.

The same year as Kung Fu, Carradine also starred memorably in Martin Scorsese’s first film Boxcar Bertha opposite Barbara Hershey as an almost Christ-like train hopping drifter. It’s a wonderfully charismatic performance. He also turned up in a cameo in the far-more acclaimed follow-up by Scorsese, Mean Streets.

Carradine played the role of Casanova Frankenstein in the wild 1975 Corman cult classic Death Race 2000, another great trashpile mistaken for gold in a cruddy Hollywood remake this decade. He flirted with automotive typecasting in Cannonball the following year, a film based on the same real race as Burt Reynold’s later Cannonball Run duology. He also received some of his best reviews ever as Woody Guthrie in the biopic Bound For Glory in 1976.

The 80s consisted of TV guest spots and cheesy (if often entertaining) B pics like Q: The Winged Serpent and Lone Wolf McQuade.

In 2003 Quentin Tarantino cast Carradine as the title character of his epic Kill Bill films, cannily using his stillness and craggy planar features to convey quiet menace. He’s a revelation in these films. Tarantino has said that he chose to cast Carradine based on his entertaining autobiography, having reportedly originally pictured Warren Beatty in the role.

He was subsequently rarely without work, filming several films each year of varying quality and often doing riffs on both his Kung Fu and Kill Bill personas.

Here’s Carradine trying to do us all a favor by kicking Rick Springfield’s ass:

A thoughtful, pensive scene from Death Race 2000

The trailer for Hal Ashby’s Bound For Glory

From the pilot for Kung Fu:

From Kill Bill: