Carradine may have died from sex act: Thai police
Published: June 5, 2009
Updated 5 months ago
BANGKOK (AFP) – US actor David Carradine may have died from a sex act gone wrong, Thai police said Friday, as they probed the evidence after the “Kung Fu” star was found hanged in his Bangkok hotel room.
A maid at a luxury hotel in the Thai capital where he was staying found Carradine hanging naked and bound in a closet Thursday morning, they said. He was 72.
“There was a rope tied around his neck and another rope tied at his sex organ, and the two ropes were tied together and hung in the closet,” police commander Lieutenant General Worapong Siewpreecha told reporters.
“Under these circumstances we cannot be sure that he committed suicide but he may have died from masturbation,” he said.
The star of 1970s TV series “Kung Fu” and the “Kill Bill” movies was in the Thai capital to shoot a film called “Stretch.”
An initial autopsy report revealed Carradine died from a sudden lack of oxygen and his body showed no signs of struggle, a hospital worker who had read the report told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“He died from acute lack of air,” the worker said, adding that DNA samples from a rope and the body were being studied to see if Carradine had tied the binds himself.
A full autopsy report was expected within the next day, while drug and alcohol tests were being carried out along with forensic investigations, hospital staff and police said.
Police have questioned members of the film production crew, who told them the actor “drank beer from morning until evening the day before he was found dead,” Worapong said.
Forensic expert Porntip Rojanasunan, who works with Thailand’s justice ministry, told AFP the death appeared to be caused by an “auto-erotic accident.”
Police officer Pirom Janthapirom said that hotel security cameras showed no one going in or out of Carradine’s room, which had been locked from the inside, he told AFP.
A US embassy spokeswoman confirmed it was currently organising the repatriation of the body, but she was not able to say when this would take place.
Local police said they had passed all relevant documentation concerning the actor to the American authorities. The Bangkok hospital that had carried out the autopsy said it had released Carradine’s body late Friday afternoon.
A restaurant worker at the Nai Lert Park hotel where Carradine had been staying said the actor had entertained staff by playing a piano in the hotel lobby on three nights.
“He seemed very cheerful, he was laughing and joking with the staff,” the restaurant worker said, adding that Carradine had a double brandy before going to bed at 10:30 pm on Wednesday night.
The producer of “Stretch,” French firm MK2, said Carradine had been found three days before filming was due to end.
A spokesman for the company said Carradine’s death “could be accidental.”
A spokeswoman for his Los Angeles agents refused to speculate on the cause of death.
“The Carradine family is devastated by the news of David?s passing,” said Julie Nathanson. “There will be no further comment until more information can be confirmed.”
Carradine was part of an acting family that includes father John and brothers Keith and Robert.
He was born on December 8, 1936 and broke into show business through musical theatre on New York’s Broadway.
While best known for his role as the fugitive half-Chinese Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV drama “Kung Fu,” Carradine had a long and varied career in film.
He appeared in Martin Scorsese’s “Boxcar Bertha” in 1972, played legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie in the 1976 film “Bound for Glory,” and was cast by director Ingmar Bergman in “The Serpent’s Egg” set in Weimar Germany.
Over the following two decades Carradine continued to work but failed to find success outside of cult “B movies,” as he was troubled by drugs and alcohol use.
In the mid-1990s, he reprised his signature role in “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues,” which found a home on US television for a further 60 episodes.
Director Quentin Tarantino later called on Carradine to play the title character in the 2002-2003 revenge-action films “Kill Bill” and “Kill Bill II”, roles that earned Carradine a fourth Golden Globe “Best Actor” nomination.
He was married five times, most recently in 2004, and was the father of two daughters.
7 comments
Printer Friendly |
Email
| Get breaking news alerts: Email/mobile |
Hey, at least he went out doing something he loved.
Master Po: Focus, grasshopper. The rope is but a tool.
Caine: But you are blind, master - how do you see the rope?
Master Po: I hear the rope, as I used to hear your breathing, grasshopper. You have failed me again.
I have known David casually for over 30 years from Malibu to NYC…the notion that he went to Bangkok to hang himself is inconsistnent with my perception of the person he was.
If, and I do repeat IF, he were suicidal? he was far too sophisticated to see that act through by rope when he was perfectly capable of far more sublime methods.
Now this new version of events? Salacious, but highly suspect he was 72 after all?
“He was 72, after all”. That means he couldn’t jerk off? Saw this type of death before, many times, but with younger men. They’d tie a rope around their necks and then hang it over a closet door and tie the other end to the door knob. Then they’d gently lower themselves to the floor. The idea was to cut off a small amount of blood flow to the brain while jerking off and especially when about to cum. That supposedly heightened the feeling. Unfortunately, some of these guy passed out resulting in strangling themselves. This is not suicide but rather an accidental death. Anyone who lists it as a suicide is a total idiot.
The original Kung Fu. Perhaps the best, most human work of fiction that has ever been on TV. David Carradine never failed to bring a professional portrayal of whatever character he took on, to the screen.
Chris Hansen needs to lighten up.
How many must die?!?
David may not have been alone. I heard a report on Larry King tonight that said not only was there a rope around his neck and genitals, but around his wrists, as well. This would tend to indicate that there was another person with him. Maybe this was sex play gone wrong, and the other person got scared and took off.
The Smoking Gun has a divorce filing by a previous wife, who says that she could no longer tolerate his “deviant sexual behavior” and an “incestuous relationship with a close family member”, for which she begged him to get help. He refused.
Taking into account this deviant behavior, why do single old men go to Bangkok again?