As Steve mentioned this morning, actor David Carradine was found dead in a Thailand hotel room earlier today. Details are still pretty scarce, but what ones there are can be found here and here.

I wanted to do a blog post where I talked a bit about Carradine’s career and movies and screen presence, and maybe include a few clips from Kung Fu and Death Race 2000, but… well, goddammit. This news just makes me very sad—and frankly, I don’t have anything to say about how great Carradine was that hasn’t already been said in the two clips below.

Both feature my favorite Carradine performance in one of my favorite movies, Kill Bill. Quentin Tarantino reportedly originally offered the role of Bill to Warren Beatty, who turned it down—a rumor I’ve read multiple times in multiple places, but have never been able to wholly believe. Carradine’s Bill was so perfect and scary and funny and badass and—despite everything he did in the film—so admirable that I simply can’t imagine anyone but Carradine playing him. Here are two of Carradine’s best scenes—the first a bit of dialogue, and the second an action sequence that, sadly, never made it into theaters.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PdWF7kd1tNo%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1%26rel%3D0

With honor and distinction, Erik Henriksen served as the executive editor of the Portland Mercury from 2004 to 2020. He can now be found at henriksenactual.com.

4 replies on “David Carradine’s Dead. Goddammit.”

  3. It’s looking like he died in some sort of kinky sex thing, as I read that the rope was also tied around his genitals. I wonder if he had a hooker in there, something went bad, he died and she split. Just curious, not demeaning him.

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