As the investigation continues into the death of David Carradine, the actor’s friends and family are remembering the late star of “Kill Bill” and “Kung Fu.”
“He was a dream. He was a fantastic actor,” Quentin Tarantino, who was Carradine’s director on the two “Kill Bill” films, said on “Larry King Live” Thursday night. “I think he’s also one of Hollywood’s great mad geniuses. You have these wild men actors and he was one of them. It was just a pleasure to work with him.”
Joining him on “Larry King Live” was Carradine’s manager, Chuck Binder, and fellow actor and “Kill Bill” co-star Michael Madsen, who told King that he had spoken to Carradine’s wife, Annie Bierman, earlier in the day.
“I don’t think she’s doing very well,” Madsen said. “She’s pretty confused, she would really like to find out the truth of what happened about it.”
All the stars refuted the idea that Carradine, who was found hanging in his Bangkok, Thailand, hotel room on Thursday morning, had committed suicide.
“I don’t think he was suicidal by any stretch of the imagination,” Madsen said, adding that Carradine’s wife had told him, “David was not suicidal, he wasn’t depressed and he wasn’t about to do something like that, especially when he had a job.”
They weren’t the only ones to remember Carradine, who has seen an outpouring of support from the Hollywood community, including Whoopi Goldberg, Rainn Wilson and Vivica A. Fox, since the news of his death, but some memories also came from his family.
“My Uncle David was a brilliantly talented, fiercely intelligent and generous man,” his niece, actress Martha Plimpton, told Access Hollywood in a statement on Friday on behalf of the family. “He was the nexus of our family in so many ways, and drew us together over the years and kept us connected. I adored him as a child, and as an adult I admired and respected him. We will all miss him terribly, and are so grateful for everyone’s condolences. The passing of someone so loved is extremely difficult under any circumstances, and I hope that all those in the media who admired David will respect his legacy and allow his family and loved ones to grieve peacefully.”