David Carradine (Actor)

David Carradine poses at the 2007 World Talent Style Lounge (Photo: Mark Mainz / Getty Images)

About David Carradine

A leading and supporting player of TV and movies, David Carradine rose to fame with his iconic role, Kwai Chang Caine, the half-Asian student of life on the popular TV series, "Kung Fu" (ABC, 1972-75) – a role he would go on to reprise for a syndicated series in the late 1990s. The son of legendary actor John Carradine, he excelled at playing villains in action and terror films which, unfortunately, often carried a "soon to be on a video shelf near you" proviso. Almost as famous as his Kung Fu persona, was his psychedelic lifestyle and devotion to Eastern philosophy, particularly in the 1960s and '70s when Carradine seemed more engaged in his alternative lifestyle than in furthering his career – with the possible exceptions of his starring role as folk singer Woody Guthrie in the Oscar-nominated "Bound for Glory" (1976) and a turn in Ingmar Bergman's confusing "The Serpent's Egg" (1977).

Carradine had a restless youth, born Dec. 8, 1936 in Hollywood but raised in Manhattan, NY, the eldest son in an acting brood that included famous half-siblings, Keith and Robert. Educated at San Francisco State University, he studied music theory and composition. It was while writing music for the drama department's annual revues, that he discovered his own passion for the stage, joining a Shakespearean repertory company and learning his craft on his feet. It was while sporadically attending college, during which he worked as a manual laborer, that he began openly experimenting with drugs. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, he found work in New York as a commercial artist and got his first taste of fame on Broadway in "The Deputy" and "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" opposite Christopher Plummer. In 1964, he also made his feature film debut with a bit part in "Taggart," a western based on a novel by Louis L'Amour. Carradine next inherited Alan Ladd's role of a fading gunslinger for the small screen version of "Shane" (ABC, 1966) – a production that failed in the ratings, despite predictions to the contrary.

Nevertheless, the actor found constant employment in a string of forgettable films, with the occasional masterpiece. Martin Scorsese tapped the actor to play a railroad union organizer in "Boxcar Bertha" (1972) and then cast him in a small but memorable role as a drunk who is shot while urinating in one of Scorsese's first classics, "Mean Streets" (1973). By the time the latter was released, Carradine was starring as the Martial artist on the popular TV series, "Kung Fu." The part catapulted Carradine to a whole new level, and so began the actor's life-long obsession with the Martial arts – an interest which would years later, result in the release of several exercise videos teaching the martial arts of Tai chi and Qi Gong exercises, which the actor would produce and star in. After only three seasons on his star-making show, he left to pursue a film career.

Moving behind the camera, Carradine directed and starred in the little seen "You and Me" (1975). After his success with "Bound for Glory", it appeared as if Carradine was headed for more mainstream movie stardom, but his subsequent vehicles were lacking. Only Walter Hill's 1980 western, "The Long Riders" – which used the gimmick of teaming filmdom's real-life brother acts – the Carradines, the Quaids and the Keachs) – onscreen as brothers, was above-average. His second attempt in the director's chair, "Americana" (1983) also met with a less than stellar reception.

As an actor, however, Carradine continued to churn out genre fare to varying degrees of success. On the big screen, he was the villain tracked by Chuck Norris in "Lone Wolf McQuade" (1982) and an evil German soldier in "The Misfit Brigade/Wheels of Terror" (1987). Carradine continued his low-grade film streak with such efforts as "Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat" (1990), "Dune Warriors" (1991) and "Waxwork II" (1992). In 1997, he filmed roles in "Macon County Jail," opposite Ally Sheedy and "The New Swiss Family Robinson" with Jane Seymour. From there, Carradine's career continued seemingly on autopilot through a variety of forgettable, direct-to-video thrillers, low-grade foreign films and TV guest spots which almost always played on his familiar "Kung Fu" past. Occasionally those guest spots would showcase Carradine's largely untapped dramatic abilities and charisma, such as his recurring guest spots as Andrew Weller on the second season of the legal drama "Family Law" (CBS, 1999-2002). Surprisingly, he also ran against type by guesting as an old friend of Hilary Duff's father, Sam McGuire – in fact, Carradine's real-life half-brother Robert – on an episode of the Disney Channel's frothy tween sit-com "Lizzie McGuire" (2001-04).

Back to his bad-ass Martial arts roots, thanks to director and fan Quentin Tarantino, Carradine finally got a chance to both revisit past glories and reinvent himself – much like Tarantino's other hand-picked then past-their-prime-stars, John Travolta and Robert Forster before him – when he was cast as the enigmatic assassin leader Bill in the director's violent exploitation homage, "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" (2003) and its sequel, "Kill Bill, Vol. 2" (2004). The movies were a dual sensation, bringing to the actor a new legion of younger fans who were not even alive during Carradine's "Kung Fu" run. Suddenly cool again, Carradine began landing commercial spots and high profile guest appearances on such hip TV shows as the Jennifer Garner spy series "Alias" (ABC, 2001- ) and the Patricia Arquette thriller, "Medium" (NBC, 2005- ).