David Carradine found dead in Bangkok

Hollywood actor David Carradine who starred in hits like "Kung Fu" and "Kill Bill" was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room closet yesterday, Thai police said.

Police believed he committed suicide.

Carradine, 72, was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and staying at Suite Room 352 in the Park Nai Lert Hotel on Wireless Road since June 2.

The film crew noticed his absence when they went to dine out at a restaurant on Sathon Road on Wednesday. Carradine did not show up at the dinner and the team could not reach him. They assumed that because of his age he was resting in his room.

A hotel maid opened his suite yesterday at 10am only to find Carradine dead in a closet. He was described as being half-naked.

A police investigation showed that he hung himself with a rope, the kind that is used for curtains. Police said he was dead not less than 12 hours and found no sign of fighting or assault.

He had been married five times and divorced four. He is survived by Annie Bierman, whom he married in 2004. He was father to three children and four stepchildren

His personal manager, Chuck Binder, told BBC that the news was "shocking", adding: "He was full of life, always wanting to work... a great person."

Kung Fu man

Aside from his role as Bill in Quentin Tarantino's two-part "Kill Bill" series in 2003-04, Carradine was perhaps best known for his role as the fugitive half-Chinese Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s eastern-western TV drama "Kung Fu". He also starred in Martin Scorsese's "Boxcar Bertha" in 1972, portrayed folksinger Woody Guthrie in "Bound for Glory" in 1976, acted in Ingmar Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" in 1977 and co-starred with half brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine in the 1980 western "The Long Riders".

His father was noted actor John Carradine.

Carradine was recently seen in Bangkok cinemas as a martial-arts guru in the Rob Schneider comedy "Big Stan" and as a perverted elderly Chinese mobster in "Crank: High Voltage" starring Jason Statham.