Biography
David Carradine is best known to the public for a single role, of Kwai Chang Caine, whom he portrayed during three seasons of the series
Kung Fu (1972-1975), and in its successor series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993-1997). But in a career approaching its fifth decade, he has done memorable work in over 200 motion pictures and television dramas, numerous plays -- including a successful run on Broadway early on -- and has been a producer, director, writer, and composer for the screen as well.
He was born John Arthur Carradine, the eldest son of
John Carradine, the beloved and very busy character actor, whose roles encompassed everything from
John Steinbeck's Reverend Casey to Bram Stoker's Dracula. David Carradine's early adult life was one of exploration -- though born in Hollywood (or, perhaps, precisely because he had been), he tried on a lot of sides of living before he finally turned to acting as a profession, including a hitch in the army, an early marriage that produced one child, life among the beats in San Francisco, traveling around the country doing odd jobs and performing as a folk singer, and squeezing in some study of theater arts. He worked with various community and semi-professional dramatic companies in San Francisco; hitchhiked his way to New York; did Shakespeare in Akron, OH, and parts of New Jersey; and all of the other things that aspiring would-be actors are supposed to do. And he got a few early screen credits in television productions such as Armstrong Circle Theater ("Secret Document"), and in various series produced by Universal Pictures' ReVue television division, including episodes of
The Virginian,
Wagon Train, and Arrest & Trial, plus
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He also made his big-screen debut thanks to Universal with a small role in the R.G. Springsteen-directed western
Taggart (1964). His real professional breakthrough came a year later on the Broadway stage, however, in Peter Shaffer's The Royal Hunt of the Sun, in a cast headed by
Christopher Plummer. He enjoyed an extended run in the Broadway production, which was accompanied by the first round of publicity for Carradine, even then focusing on his unpredictable, iconoclastic nature. He was lured back to Hollywood by the chance to star in the series
Shane, based on the
George Stevens movie and the Jack Schaefer novel. He was able to put his own stamp on the role, quite different from the portrayal that
Alan Ladd had delivered in the film; but the viewing public had been swamped by westerns for a decade, and the series never had a chance to find an audience, lasting only 16 episodes. From 1967 until 1972, he was occasionally seen in one-off roles in dramatic series such as Coronet Blue and
The Name of the Game, and was in a remake of
Johnny Belinda with
Mia Farrow and
Ian Bannen, but was most often seen in westerns, including
The Violent Ones (1967) and
The McMasters (1969) (playing a Native American in the latter). Villainous roles seemed to be what he was most often offered -- even in the the most interesting of his early-'70s vehicles, the drama
Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring (1971), starring
Sally Field, his presence as a somewhat larcenous street person lent an extra sinister undertow to the plot.
In 1972 he was approached about the possibility of starring in a proposed series that was easily the most offbeat western ever considered by a network up to that time:
Kung Fu. The public had long since lost interest in traditional westerns, but here was a story that combined a quest with a tale of pursuit and necessarily included philosophical conflict never before addressed in series television. The role appealed to Carradine, and he got the part of Kwai Chang Caine, the Chinese-American hero, despite knowing nothing of martial arts. Drawing on his ability as a dancer at his meeting with the producers, he was able to prove with one well-placed kick at a point above his head that he could pull it off. The series ran for three seasons, during which time Carradine put an increasing amount of himself into the portrayal. And the public responded, especially viewers under 40, who resonated to the character and the man behind it.
Kung Fu became one of those odd cult shows -- somewhat reminiscent of
Star Trek (and, especially, the appeal of
Leonard Nimoy's Spock) -- the fans of which were devoted beyond the usual casual weekly viewing. Carradine saw to it, however, even during the run of the series, that he kept busy on other projects, including the
Martin Scorsese-directed
Boxcar Bertha (1972), starring his paramour
Barbara Hershey, and small roles in the
Robert Altman revisionist detective film
The Long Goodbye (1973) and Scorsese's
Mean Streets (1973).
Kung Fu made Carradine a star, but he eventually left the series, owing to disagreements with the producers. His withdrawal from the series could have damaged his career, but Carradine was fortunate enough to latch on to a script that
Roger Corman was planning to produce -- a new kind of action movie,
Death Race 2000 (1975), became a huge underground hit and proved that Carradine had some measure of big-screen appeal. He followed this up with
Cannonball (1976) and other action pictures done for Corman. And in the midst of those movies -- moneymakers all -- he also found the opportunity to star for the first time in a major, big-budget Hollywood feature,
Bound for Glory (1976), portraying legendary folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie. Carradine put a lot of his own experience in music into the portrayal, and the movie -- directed by
Hal Ashby -- was a critical success, but a box office disappointment. Good roles kept coming his way, however, not only through Corman but also from an unexpected quarter,
Ingmar Bergman, who cast Carradine, in memorable turn, as a Jewish trapeze artist in
The Serpent's Egg (1977), co-starring
Liv Ullmann. Even some of the most routine movies in which he appeared during this period were often worth seeing solely for Carradine's performances, never more so than his work as Captain Gates in the submarine rescue drama
Gray Lady Down (1978). Indeed, Carradine's scenes in the latter film have a completely different feel and dramatic texture from the rest of the movie, which was otherwise mostly worthless as anything except a way to kill 100 minutes or so.
Carradine made his directorial debut on a handful of episodes of
Kung Fu. Upon leaving the series, he directed his first feature film, the drama
You and Me (1975). The latter film co-starred
Barbara Hershey and his brothers
Keith Carradine and
Robert Carradine were in the cast. His career across the next few decades involved a mix of major feature films, such as
The Long Riders (1980), and offbeat smaller scale pictures such as
Q (1982), interspersed with more personal projects such as
Americana (1981), for which he served as screenwriter, director, and producer, as well as starring as a taciturn Vietnam veteran who heals himself and a troubled Midwestern town by refurbishing an old carousel. During the 1990s, he also returned to the role of Kwai Chang Caine in the series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Among the best elements of the series were Carradine's interactions with his co-star,
Robert Lansing (another Hollywood iconoclast), especially in the late episodes, when the latter actor was terminally ill. Even when he was doing action features such as
Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) -- in which he played the antagonist to real-life martial arts expert
Chuck Norris' hero -- Carradine maintained a reputation for quality in the nature of his own work, which served him in good stead in the years to come. Longtime fans, appreciative of his work since his days on
Kung Fu, could always depend on him to deliver a worthwhile performance, even if the vehicles in which he worked were less than stellar, as was often the case -- outside of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues -- in the 1990s. The stars finally lined up in his favor again in 2003, when Carradine appeared in
Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 with
Uma Thurman, which led to his much-expanded part in the follow-up movie. Since those films, he has been busier than at any time in his career, with dozens of screen credits in the years that followed.
Carradine has written two books, Spirit of Shaolin and the autobiography Endless Highway, and has made a pair of popular instructional videos, David Carradine: T'ai Chi Workout and David Carradine: Kung Fu Workout. When not working, the actor enjoys painting, sculpting, and performing music. He also wrote several songs for the 2003 film
American Reel, in which he starred as struggling singer/songwriter James Lee Springer. Carradine has three children, one each from his first two marriages, to Donna Lee Brecht (1960-1968) and Linda Gilbert (1977-1983), and one with
Barbara Hershey, with whom he lived from 1972 to 1975. In 2009, he was found dead, hanged in a Bangkok hotel. He was 72 years old. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide