"Kung Fu" actor Carradine found hanged in Thai hotel

In this file photo U.S. film director Quentin Tarantino (R) and U.S. actor David Carradine pose during the presentation of their latest movie "Kill Bill Vol. 2" at a Madrid hotel June 21, 2004. Carradine, who starred as the wandering monk in the long-running Kung Fu television series, has died in Bangkok, the U.S. embassy said on Thursday. [Agencies]

Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s U.S. television show "Kung Fu," was found naked and hanging dead from a rope in the closet of his luxury Bangkok hotel room Thursday, Thai police said.

No signs were found of other people in the room and the body of the 72-year-old actor was sent to a hospital for an autopsy, police said. Results are expected on Friday.

"He was found hanging by a rope in the room's closet," Lieutenant Colonel Pirom Jantrapirom of the Lumpini police station in Bangkok told Reuters.

Carradine, from a family of performers and the eldest son of character actor John Carradine, enjoyed a long career on Broadway, television and in movies such as director Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" and "Kill Bill: Vol. 2."

Representatives for his Los Angeles-based talent manager said the actor was in Thailand to shoot a film called "Stretch," and while several media reports speculated his death may have been a suicide, a spokeswoman said neither they nor his family believed Carradine was capable of killing himself.

"His family is in shock," said Tiffany Smith of Carradine's management firm, Binder & Associates. "They have the same belief we have. There was no way David did this to himself."

Smith declined further comment pending the police report.

In his 1995 autobiography "Endless Highway," Carradine wrote that he tried to kill himself when he was 5 years-old.

The book also described his extensive drug use, ranging from LSD to cocaine, and ended with a chronicle of his efforts in the mid-1990s to get sober by attending a support group for alcoholics.

FAN ANGUISH

Condolences came pouring in from Hollywood celebrities and fans posting comments on his website, www.david-carradine.com.

Martin Scorsese, who directed Carradine in 1972's "Boxcar Bertha," called Carradine "a great collaborator, a uniquely talented actor, and a wonderful spirit."

One poster on Carradine's website wrote, "What a sad day it is for all who grew up watching David Carradine." Another said "RIP Grasshopper" -- the nickname of his "Kung Fu" character Kwai Chang Caine, a wandering monk in America's Old West who became an iconic figure of U.S. TV in the 1970s.