David Carradine dead at 72

It almost reads like a hoax, some cruel, belated April Fool's gag. David Carradine? The terminally hip B-list icon, dead at 72 in a Bangkok hotel room? And he HUNG HIMSELF?

Alas, it's the truth. No gag, no joke. Carradine, who has had a multi-decade, multi-genre career in film and television, died of an apparent suicide by hanging last Thursday.

Carrdine's first scene on-screen in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2.

Check this report from The Nation:

American actor Carradine, 72, was in Bangkok to shoot his latest movie, Stretch, and stayed at a Suite Room 352 of the Park Nai Lert Hotel on Wireless Road since June 2.

The film crew were aware of his absence when they went to dine out at a restaurant on Sathorn Road on June 3.

Carradine did not show up at the dinner and the team could not reach him. They assumed that he took a rest because of his age.

It was a hotel's maid who opened his suite on Thursday at 10 am after her repeated calls at the door were unanswered. She found Carradine in a closet. He was described as being half naked.

Police said evidence at the scene showed that he hung himself.

Carradine is most famous for his starring role in the seminal 70s TV series "Kung Fu." Carradine played the role of Kwai Caine, the wandering Shaolin monk adrift through the American west in search of his half brother.

Carradine's fame continued through a series of supporting film roles through much of the 80s, and then spiked enormously with the release of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2, where Carradine played the title role as a haunting, ultra-cool assassin.

Carradine was married 5 times. He is survived by his widow, Annie Bierman.