David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradinewas an American actor and martial artist, best known for his leading role as a peace-loving Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series Kung Fu. He was a member of a productive acting family that began with his father, John Carradine. Carradine's acting career, which included major and minor roles on stage and television, and in cinema, spanned over four decades. A prolific "B" movie actor, he appeared in more than 100 feature films and was...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth8 December 1936
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Most actors spend a lot of time training themselves to be an actor. And I kind of didn't do that. I just started doin' it in front of an audience and had to deliver.
One thing I've noticed is that I can tell when a young actor or a young actress is going to become a huge star. Everybody else will say, "Oh come on, Michelle Pfeiffer, are you kidding?" and I'm pretty much always right about that.
Then the part comes to me and it fits like a glove because it's actually written about me, ... All I had to do was show up and learn the lines.
It turned out that this stuff that the Chinese guys do is not really kung fu. It's very different and I did need to learn how to do that.
It was pretty extensive - we worked out 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months, which I think is more than anybody in the Olympics. I thought well I don't need this, the girls need it, but it was a gift.
I was involved in a web cartoon of Kung Fu with WB a few years back.
I don't need to convince anybody that I know kung fu, but maybe somebody needs to know that I really can act, without doing a Chinese accent or a funny walk.
I'm not regretful about dropping acid, but I could have stopped it a little sooner.
Quentin and I were constantly finding something new that we had in common and comic books were one of them. I think we were talking about comic books much earlier in our relationship, before I had the part.
Born to play? Hmmm. Probably Romeo... or Hamlet, I guess. Also, I'd be a great Alexander the Great.
There are no good guys in a Quentin Tarantino movie. They're all bad guys. And you like us. That's Quentin's big talent.
Because you know how you say I've got to really get down and really do some training and then of course, you never do or you do it for a couple of weeks and slough it back off again but I'm being forced to do something that I really want to do and I loved it.
But, Tarantino has seen all of my movies. He's seen my good stuff, he's seen my bad stuff, he's seen the ones I directed, he's read my autobiography. There's an awful lot of things he knows about me, all of which I think had something to do with his casting.
I think it may have been Tom Wolfe (if it wasn't, my apologies, Tom, and my apologies to whoever it was) who said in print once, 'David Carradine lives the life that Hunter Thompson only writes about.'