Killed Bill, Vol 1

David Carradine was been found dead in Bangkok. News reports said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide. Perhaps we could say we saw it coming?

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor, and authorities stated that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday. It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday. Local papers said Carradine could not be contacted after he failed to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, and that his body was found by a hotel maid at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The name of the movie was not immediately available, but you can bet they're scrambling to get that part recast (NOTE - rumor is it was the very ill-named Stretch).

A preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a cord used with the room's curtains. It cited police as saying he had been dead at least 12 hours and there was no sign that he had been assaulted. Also, no word if it was a Michael Hutchence type of suicide (if you catch my drift). Authorities were mum on a tall blonde in a yellow track suit, seen in the vicinity, and more details will likely come out as time passes.

Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith. In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series "Kung Fu," which aired in 1972-75.

UPDATE: Sheesh! No respect for the dead. But, he was allegedly found naked, in a closet...