David Carradine Biography

Actor. Born John Arthur Carradine on December 8, 1936, in Hollywood, California. Carradine was born into an acting dynasty; his father was the noted American actor John Carradine.

From a young age, Carradine was interested in becoming a fine artist. Learning from his father, who was a sculptor before becoming an actor, the young David started creating his own sculptures at the age of four. Despite his color blindness, Carradine persisted with art, and was constantly painting, sculpting and drawing as a youth. But while he dreamed of becoming a full-time artist, he also found he had a knack for acting.

His theatre career began at San Francisco State College, where he studied drama as well as fine art. Carradine was soon performing in the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and Ohio's Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival.

He continued to perform during his stint in the military, acting producing, directing and performing in musicals and dramas for the U.S. Army Entertainment Unit. After his honorable discharge from the military, Carradine headed to New York, where he got a job with an art agency. He quit, however, when he got his first acting gig: a production of Hamlet in a New Jersey shopping mall. A year later, he was starring on Broadway.

Carradine's big break on the small screen came in 1972, when he was chosen to play martial arts master Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s television series Kung Fu. He also earned a name for himself playing vagabonds and folk heroes in films such as Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha (1972) and 1976's Bound for Glory . In more recent years, he starred as the mysterious Bill in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1(2003) and its popular sequel Kill Bill, Vol.2 (2004).

On June 4, 2009, Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok, Thailand, hotel room. Early reports say the actor hung himself in a closet, using a curtain cord as a noose. He was in the city to shoot his latest film, Stretch. Carradine was 72 years old at the time of his death.

Carradine was married five times and had two daughters, Calista and Kansas. His most recent marriage was in 2004 to Annie Bierman.

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