Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s U.S. television show “Kung Fu,” was found naked and hanging dead from a rope in the closet of his luxury Bangkok hotel room on Thursday, Thai police said. No signs were found of other people in the room and the body of the 72-year-old actor was sent to a hospital for an autopsy, police said. “He was found hanging by a rope in the room's closet,” Lieutenant Colonel Pirom Jantrapirom of the Lumpini police station in Bangkok told Reuters. Lori Binder, a representative for Carradine's Los Angeles-based talent manager, said the actor was in Thailand to shoot a film called “Stretch.” She declined to give further details of his death while it was under investigation. Carradine, from a family of performers and the eldest son of character actor John Carradine, enjoyed a long career on Broadway, television and in movies such as director Quentin Tarantino's “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” and “Kill Bill: Vol. 2.” Condolences came pouring in to the actor's website www.david-carradine.com. “What a sad day it is for all who grew up watching David Carradine and knowing this great actor. May you rest in eternal peace,” said one post. Another simply said “RIP Grasshopper” -- the nickname of his “Kung Fu” character Kwai Chang Caine, a wandering monk in America's Old West who became an iconic figure of U.S. television in the 1970s. In his 1995 autobiography “Endless Highway,” Carradine wrote that he tried to kill himself when he was 5 years old. The book also described his extensive drug use.
