David Carradine's posthumous fame.

It is bizarre. David Carradine is already more famous for dying, than for living. His death, in mysterious circumstances, has ensured that, far from being largely unnoticed, at death (as I suspect he would have been, had he not died in the way he did), more attention is being paid to him now, than he ever received in life.

It is notable that, after David Carradine's Kwai Chang Caine role in "Kung Fu", that he led a rather quiet career, for the most part, from the viewpoint of the public. Yes, it is true that he appeared in around 200 shows...but it is also true that most of these roles went largely unnoted. David Carradine was very much an "under the radar", actor, until he was cast as Bill, in Kill Bill, by Quentin Tarantino. Then, again, for a brief time, David Carradine was noticed by the global public - or at least that part of it which likes Quentin Tarantino films (by no means a majority of people, but certainly a fair proportion).

David Carradine's last scene will be forever remembered. Unfortunately, it is a scene of peculiar death: a still shot, imagined in the minds of most readers, of a naked man, bound and suspended from a closet railing. However, this situation has one effect that, as an actor, David Carradine might have appreciated: his career and work may now gain much more notice than they would have done had he quietly slipped away, from natural causes, as most actors (and most people) do. David Carradine's misfortune has the one redeeming feature that he will now never be forgotten - at least, in the lifetime of anyone now living in the developed world, with access to the media.

Yet, there is a tragedy in this situation, too. For is it not sad that a man can be more noticed for dying bizarrely, than for making a creative effort in 200 televisual and filmic productions, throughout five decades? This speaks for the modern world's appetite for strange news, over their appetite for film. It seems that people are more interested in the oddities of the real world, than in anything film has to offer.

Perhaps it all comes down to the power of gossip. David Carradine has died in an eminently gossip worthy fashion. Now, even if the truth turns out to be a rather simple, if odd, case of auto-erotic asphyxiation, that truth will never be allowed to live alone. Alongside it will be spoken any number of theories of why and how he died. Forevermore, there will be tales of murder, of another, or others, present in the room at his death and discussion of whether it was all accidental or suicidal. No matter what the results of the autopsy are, no matter what the police decide, the conspiracy theorists will yabber on, gossip will continue to circulate and the tale of David Carradine's death will just grow bigger and bigger. Not until everyone on Earth has heard of it and discussed it to, excuse me, death, will the gossiping cease. By then, of course, everyone will know of David Carradine, even if they had never before seen any of his work (which is quite possible, particularly if the people concerned are too young to have seen the first run of Kung Fu from 1972 to 1975).

David Carradine is dead. However, in another sense, David Carradine is immortal. By dying as he has, he has, most probably inadvertently, ensured that he will never be forgotten. David Carradine's posthumous fame, is far greater than David Carradine's fame in life ever was. That, perhaps, is the strangest thing of all - even stranger than to end up hung naked from a closet in a Bangkok hotel two days into filming the appropriately named French film production, "Stretch".

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

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David Carradine, "Kung Fu" actor, dead in Bangkok

David Carradine has died, in a Bangkok hotel room. The initial police report says "suicide", his family and friends say "No way", his manager, too, disputes the suicide theory. Whether or not his hanging was a voluntary act, accidental or assisted by another, may never be determined. That David Carradine will be missed, however, is certain.

David Carradine came from an acting family...his father John was a noted and busy actor from the 30s to the 80s and his brother Bruce Carradine, his half-brothers Keith and Robert Carradine, his niece Martha Plimpton and nephew Ever Carradine, are all actors, too. His case, therefore, calls to mind the recent death of Natasha Richardson, also from an extensive acting dynasty, though of the British variety.

I am not going to write a potted biography of David Carradine: many other sites have done that. I am, however, going to look at his effect on many children around the world.

Ever so long ago, from 1972 to 1975, David Carradine appeared in the lead role of "Kung Fu", the series, as Kwai Chang Caine, a wandering half-Chinese monk. His adventures captivated me, as a young boy and I watched him avidly, imagining myself doing, as he did, as, no doubt, many young boys did.

Kwai Chang Caine was an iconic character and one strangely influential. After the first run of the series ended, I took up Kung Fu, myself, as a little boy. That youthful interest owed itself, to some degree, to David Carradine's portrayal of the mastery of movement that Kwai Chang Caine showed. From my browsing on the net, it is clear that David Carradine's character inspired many young boys, from around the world, to develop an interest in the martial arts.

It is funny to think of it, but not many tv characters made such a lasting impression on me, in my early years, as Kwai Chang Caine, did. Perhaps some of his success was his difference from what was then normal. He was an ODD character. His behaviour was out of the ordinary. His skills were magical. His self-assurance was attractive. He was the invincible outsider. There was something very alluring about that: a man who was not a part of what surrounded him, but was superior to it. He bested the typical Americans around him, at every encounter...and yet he was unarmed. To a young boy, that seemed very impressive.

There were also philosophical echoes to the character and the storyline. It had depths that were not immediately evident. This, too, had its allure: there was something to think about there.

The most shocking thing, for me, is to learn that the series was so long ago. When I watched it, I didn't think of myself as a little boy. I didn't feel undeveloped. I cannot, now, conceive that I was between four and seven years old, when I saw it - because it seems so recent, so present. The series made an impression on me that never really left, though, of course, I very rarely thought of it in the subsequent decades.

Oddly, however, I did a net search for David Carradine, a few days ago, on a whim. He had come to mind, for reasons I cannot explain, and I felt moved to go looking for what had happened to him and to see how popular he was, nowadays. It was the first time I had ever searched for him, on the net - and the first time, in perhaps three decades, that I had thought of him. That he should die a few days later is just the kind of coincidence that makes some people believe in psychic abilities.

David Carradine was an actor who was always working. However, most of his roles were sufficiently low key not to make a global impression. He was, therefore, one of those actors remembered largely for but one role: Kwai Chang Caine, despite having played over a hundred.

Thank you David Carradine, for inspiring so many young boys, to trying the martial arts. RIP.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)