David Carradine

David Carradine Net Worth 2025: Earnings & Career Explored

David Carradine was a celebrated American actor, director, musician, and martial artist, best known for his iconic role as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu and as Bill in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films. This article provides a comprehensive look at his biography, personal life, net worth, and career milestones.

Personal Profile About David Carradine

Age, Biography & Wiki

Occupation Film Producer
Date of Birth 8 December 1936
Age 88 Years
Birth Place Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Horoscope Sagittarius
Country Thailand
Date of death 3 June, 2009
Died Place Bangkok, Thailand

Height, Weight & Measurements

In 1974, at the height of his popularity in Kung Fu, Carradine was arrested again, this time for attempted burglary and malicious mischief. While under the influence of peyote, Carradine began wandering nude around his Laurel Canyon neighborhood. He broke into a neighbor's home, smashing a window and cutting his arm, and accosted two young women, allegedly assaulting one while asking her if she was a witch. Carradine pleaded no contest to the mischief charge and was given probation. He was never charged with assault, but the young woman sued him for $1.1 million and was awarded $20,000.

On June 4, Carradine was found dead in his room at the Swissôtel Nai Lert Park Hotel. He was 72 years old. Lieutenant Teerapop Luanseng and Lieutenant Colonel Pirom Jantrapirom said that Carradine was found naked and had hanged himself in the room's closet with a curtain cord. Police said he had been dead for at least 12 hours and found no sign of struggle. Thai police suggested the death might have been from accidental suffocation, since there was no suicide note and he was found with a rope tied to both his neck and his genitals. Pornthip Rojanasunand, director of Thailand's Central Institute of Forensic Science, said it may have been a case of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Thai authorities conducted the first autopsy on Carradine shortly after his death, and stated on June 8 that it would take a month to determine how he died, although a Thai police colonel told Reuters that the likely cause was asphyxiation. His funeral was held on June 13. On July 1, 2009, Michael Baden, the medical examiner hired by Carradine's family to conduct his own autopsy on Carradine, stated that the actor died from asphyxiation, and that the way Carradine's body was bound allowed him to rule out suicide.

Height 188 cm
Weight 190 lbs
Body Measurements
Eye Color
Hair Color

Dating & Relationship Status

He was a half-brother of Bruce, Keith, Christopher, and Robert Carradine, and an uncle of Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton, most of whom are also actors. Primarily of Irish descent, he was a great-grandson of Methodist evangelical author Beverly Carradine and a grandnephew of artist Will Foster. Called "Jack" by his family, Carradine had a turbulent childhood. At the time of Carradine's parents' marriage, his mother already had a son by her first husband, whom John Carradine adopted. John Carradine had planned to have a large family, but later he discovered his wife had gotten two abortions without his knowledge, and afterward a miscarriage rendered her unable to carry a baby to term.

Against this backdrop of marital discord, Carradine almost died by suicide by hanging at the age of five. He said the incident followed his discovery that he and his elder half-brother, Bruce, had different biological fathers. Carradine added, "My father saved me, and then confiscated my comic book collection and burned it—which was scarcely the point." After three years of marriage, Ardenelle filed for divorce from John, but they remained married for five more years. They divorced in 1944, when Carradine was seven. His father left California to avoid court action in the alimony settlement. After the couple had a series of court battles over child custody and alimony, which at one point landed John in jail, Carradine joined his father in New York City; by this time, his father had remarried. On December 25, 1947, Carradine appeared in a live telecast adaptation of A Christmas Carol, with his father in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. For the next few years, Carradine spent time in boarding schools, foster homes, and reform school. He also often accompanied his father to summer theater throughout the Northeast. Carradine spent time in Massachusetts, and a winter milking cows on a farm in Vermont.

Upon leaving the Army, Carradine became serious about acting. He was advised to change his name to avoid confusion with his famous father. In an interview from 2005 Carradine says his father encouraged him going into acting: "The first thing I ever did outside of school, which was a production of Romeo & Juliet, he came up from Hollywood to San Francisco to see it. And right after he just sort of opened up to me with all this advice. He became very proud of me."

In 1972, he co-starred as "Big" Bill Shelly in one of Martin Scorsese's earliest films, Boxcar Bertha, which starred Barbara Hershey, his partner at the time. This was one of several Roger Corman productions in which he appeared. It was also one of a handful of acting collaborations he did with his father. He made his feature directorial debut with the film You and Me, starring alongside Hershey and his brothers Keith and Robert. It was shot in 1972, between making the Kung Fu pilot and the series, but released in 1975.

In 2001, he appeared in the episode "The Serpent" of the syndicated TV series Queen of Swords as the sword-wielding bandit El Serpiente filmed at Texas Hollywood studios in Almeria, Spain, home of many Spaghetti Westerns. Carradine was increasingly becoming a support actor in films: Largo Winch: The Heir (2001), G.O.D. (2001), Warden of Red Rock (2001), The Donor (2001), Out of the Wilderness (2001), The Defectors (2001), Wheatfield with Crows (2002) and The Outsider (2002). He guest-starred in The Nightmare Room, Jackie Chan Adventures, Titus, and King of the Hill. David also made a guest appearance in episode 11 of Lizzie McGuire as himself, which gave him an opportunity to work with his brother Robert, who played Lizzie's father in the series.

Carradine co-produced a full-length documentary about luthier Stuart Mossman, which has been identified as the actor's last film appearance. The Legend of Stuart Mossman: A Modern Stradivari, directed by Barry Brown, premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, in February 2010. It featured David, Keith, and Robert Carradine performing their music on Mossman guitars. Mossman had appeared with Carradine in Cloud Dancer (1980), which Brown also directed, and in The Long Riders. On the small screen, Carradine appeared in a guest spot on the television series Mental that was broadcast just days after his death. On October 3, 2009, Celebrity Ghost Stories premiered on the Biography Channel with an interview of Carradine discussing his belief that his closet was haunted by his wife's deceased previous husband. The segment, which was described as "eerie", was filmed four months before his own death.

In 1968, Carradine met actress Barbara Hershey while the two of them were working on Heaven with a Gun. The pair lived together until 1975. They appeared in other films together, including Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha. In 1972, they appeared together in a nude Playboy spread, recreating some sex scenes from Boxcar Bertha. That year, Hershey gave birth to their son, Free (who, when aged nine, changed his name to Tom, much to his father's chagrin). The couple's relationship fell apart around the time of Carradine's 1974 burglary arrest, when Carradine began an affair with Season Hubley, who had guest-starred on Kung Fu. Carradine was engaged to Hubley for a time, but they never married.

In February 1977, Carradine married his second wife Linda (née Linda Anne Gilbert) in a civil ceremony in Munich, Germany, after filming The Serpent's Egg. Gilbert was previously married to Roger McGuinn of The Byrds. Carradine's second marriage ended in divorce, as did the two that followed: he was married to Gail Jensen from 1986 to 1997, and to Marina Anderson from 1998 to 2001.

On December 26, 2004, Carradine married his fifth wife, widow Annie Bierman (née Anne Kirstie Fraser; born December 21, 1960) at the seaside Malibu home of his friend Michael Madsen. Vicki Roberts, his attorney and a longtime friend of his wife's, performed the ceremony. With this marriage he acquired three stepdaughters, Amanda Eckelberry (born 1989), Madeleine Rose (born 1995), and Olivia Juliette (born 1998) as well as a stepson, actor Max Richard Carradine (born 1998). In one of his final interviews, Carradine stated that at 71, he was still "in excellent shape", attributing it to a good diet and having a youthful circle of friends. "Everybody that I know is at least 10 or 20 years younger than I am. My wife Annie is 24 years younger than I am. My daughter asks why I don't hang with women my age and I say, 'Most of the women my age are a lot older than me!

Parents
Husband Donna Lee Becht (m. 1960-1968) Linda Gilbert (m. 1977-1983) Gail Jensen (m. 1986-1997) Marina Anderson (m. 1998-2001) Annie Bierman (m. 2004)
Sibling
Children

Net Worth and Salary

During Kung Fu's original run, Carradine made cameo appearances in Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) (alongside his brother Robert Carradine) and Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. He also directed several episodes of Kung Fu, a short musical called A Country Mile (1973), and a film, You and Me (also known as Around). Carradine's annual salary on the show was reportedly $100,000.

Career, Business & Investments

David Carradine (born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor, director, and producer, whose career included over 200 major and minor roles in film, television and on stage. He was widely known to television audiences as the star of the 1970s television series Kung Fu, playing Kwai Chang Caine, a peace-loving Shaolin monk traveling through the American Old West.

Later in his career, he became known for his B movie and martial arts roles, but experienced a resurgence after playing the title character in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill duology. He received additional Golden Globe nominations for his performances in the television miniseries North and South (1985), and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), for which he won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. On April 1, 1997, Carradine received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Throughout his life, Carradine was arrested and prosecuted for a variety of offenses, which often involved substance abuse. Films that featured Carradine continued to be released after his death. In addition to his acting career, Carradine was a director and musician. Influenced by his Kung Fu role, he studied martial arts, particularly Shaolin quan. In 2014, Carradine was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame.

Eventually, Carradine returned to California, where he graduated from Oakland High School. He attended Oakland Junior College (now Laney College) for a year before transferring to San Francisco State College, where he studied drama and music theory, and wrote music for the drama department's annual revues while juggling menial jobs, a fledgling stage acting career, and his studies. After he dropped out of college, Carradine spent some time with the "beatniks" of San Francisco's North Beach and southern California's Venice. During this time he collected unemployment insurance and sold baby pictures. He was also prosecuted for disturbing the peace.

Despite an attempt to dodge the draft, in 1960, Carradine was inducted into the United States Army, where he drew pictures for training aids. That Christmas he married his high school sweetheart, Donna Lee Becht. While stationed at Fort Eustis, Virginia, he helped establish a theater company that became known as the "entertainment unit". He met fellow inductee Larry Cohen, who later cast him in Q, The Winged Serpent. He also faced court-martial for shoplifting. In 1962, Donna gave birth to their daughter, Calista. Carradine was honorably discharged after two years of active duty.

Carradine left the production of Royal Hunt of the Sun in May 1966 to take up an offer to star in the TV series Shane, a 1966 Western based upon a 1949 novel of the same name, previously filmed in 1953. Carradine played the title role opposite Jill Ireland. "I know I have some kind of vision that most actors and directors don't have", he said, "so it becomes a duty to exercise that vision. It's a responsibility, a mission." The show only lasted 17 episodes, despite good reviews. Carradine said his career was "rescued" when he was cast in Johnny Belinda (1967). He was in demand as a supporting actor, mostly in Westerns: The Violent Ones (1967), Heaven with a Gun (1969), Young Billy Young (1969) for Burt Kennedy, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) with Kennedy, The McMasters (1970), and Macho Callahan (1970).

Kung Fu ended due to several factors. It has been said that Carradine left the show after sustaining injuries that made it impossible for him to continue. While Carradine mentioned it when talking about his work in film, other causes involved were Carradine's burnout, changes in the writing and shooting that altered the show's quality, and changes in the time slot, which led to the audience's decline. Finally, the main reason was Carradine's decision to quit to pursue a career as a film actor and filmmaker. Also, the bad publicity from a 1974 peyote-related incident involving Carradine affected the ratings; Radames Pera described it as sabotage, which Carradine himself acknowledged had been detrimental to the series.

Immediately after Kung Fu, Carradine accepted the role of the racecar driver Frankenstein in Death Race 2000 (1975), he said, to "kill the image of Caine and launch a movie career." The role had originally been offered to Peter Fonda, who was not available. The film, directed by Paul Bartel and produced by Roger Corman, became a cult classic for New World Pictures. Carradine got 10% of the profits and made significant money from it. Carradine was tapped to play Duke Leto Atreides in Alejandro Jodorowsky's aborted Dune adaptation in the late 1970s. Carradine starred in the 1975 TV movie Long Way Home and another car chase film for Bartel and New World, Cannonball! (1976). Also in 1976, he earned critical praise for his portrayal of folksinger Woody Guthrie in Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory, for which he won a National Board of Review Award for Best Actor and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and New York Film Critics Circle Award. Carradine worked very closely with his friend, singer-songwriter-guitarist Guthrie Thomas, on the film. Thomas assisted Carradine in the guitar style of the period and the songs that had been chosen to be in the film.

Carradine had supporting roles in The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991) and appeared in Capital Punishment (1991) and Karate Cop (1991). Carradine was in Battle Gear (1991) and Evil Toons (1992) for Ray, and had support parts in Double Trouble (1992), Roadside Prophets (1992), Night Rhythms (1992), Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992), and Distant Justice (1992).

In a 2005 interview, Carradine talks about a period in his career in which he worked as much as he could. Psychotronic Magazine gave him an award for the "Most Working Actor in the Universe". Carradine commented that he received it "because I did nineteen movies in eighteen months. And they actually missed a couple!" He further stated, "That whole era of independent movies died. They clotted the market. I didn't know how to get out of that, so I did [the second series of Kung Fu]".

Carradine knew nothing of the practice of kung fu at the time he was cast in the role of Kwai Chang Caine; instead, he relied on his experience as a dancer for the part. He also had experience in sword fighting, boxing, and street fighting on which to draw. For the first half of the original series, David Chow provided technical assistance with kung fu, followed by Kam Yuen, who became Carradine's martial arts instructor. He never considered himself a master of the art, but rather an "evangelist" of kung fu. By 2003, he had acquired enough expertise in martial arts to produce and star in several instructional videos on tai chi and Qigong. In 2005, Carradine visited the Shaolin Monastery in Henan, China, as part of the extra features for the third season of the Kung Fu DVDs. During his visit, the abbot, Shi Yǒngxìn, said that he recognized Carradine's important contribution to the promotion of the Shaolin Monastery and kung fu culture, to which Carradine replied, "I am happy to serve."

Shortly after being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1960, Carradine proposed to Donna Lee Becht (born September 26, 1937), whom he had met when they were students at Oakland High School; they married on Christmas Day that year. She lived with him off-base when he was stationed at Fort Eustis in Virginia. In April 1962, she gave birth to their daughter Calista. After Carradine's discharge, the family lived in New York while Carradine established his acting career, appearing on Broadway in The Deputy and Royal Hunt of the Sun. The marriage dissolved in 1968, whereupon Carradine left New York and headed back to California to continue his television and film careers.

Social Network

Although the choice of a non-Asian to play the role of Kwai Chang Caine stirred controversy, the show provided steady employment for a number of Asian-American actors. In addition to Keye Luke and Philip Ahn, who held leading roles in the cast as Caine's Shaolin masters, Robert Ito, James Hong, Benson Fong, Richard Loo, and Victor Sen Yung frequently appeared in the series. A second controversy was over whose idea the series had been. Bruce Lee's widow claimed he had come up with the idea of a wandering monk in the Old West, but Ed Spielman, the series' creator, insisted that the concept was his own idea from years before Lee became a star. In an interview from 2005 Carradine disputed Bruce Lee's claim: "That's mythology. I think the way that story started was that they got it mixed up with The Silent Flute. Not sure how that happened." In his authoritative biography Bruce Lee: A Life, Matthew Polly clarifies the issue of Bruce Lee's involvement, concluding that the claim was the result of his not being cast for the leading role, and that he had no participation in the creation of the series.

Carradine made a third car chase film for Corman, Thunder and Lightning, in 1977. Next came the role of the alcoholic, unemployed trapeze artist Abel Rosenberg in The Serpent's Egg (1977). Set in post-World War I Berlin and also starring Liv Ullmann, The Serpent's Egg is one of the only two English-language films by famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, the second being The Touch. Carradine replaced Richard Harris, who was too ill to do it. Bergman said of his leading man, "I don't believe in God, but Heaven must have sent him." Carradine said that he and Bergman had plans to collaborate further, but Bergman's affection for him waned when he passionately protested a scene that included the butchering of a horse. The altercation caused Carradine to question the fate of Bergman's soul while the director declared, "Little Brother, I am an old whore. I have shot two other horses, burned one and strangled a dog."

Carradine guest-starred on an episode of Darkroom and starred in Larry Cohen's Q (1982). He made a cameo in Trick or Treats (1982) and was the villain in Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) with Chuck Norris. Carradine returned to guest-starring on regular TV series like The Fall Guy, Airwolf, Fox Mystery Theater and Partners in Crime. He starred in TV movies like Jealousy (1984) and The Bad Seed (1985), and was still in demand as the star of cheaper action films such as The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984) and On the Line (1984).

Carradine enjoyed a revival of his fame when he was cast in Quentin Tarantino's sequential Kill Bill movies, Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004). Among those who thought his portrayal of Bill, the assassin extraordinaire, would earn him an Academy Award nomination was Scott Mantz of The Mediadrome, who said, "Carradine practically steals every scene he's in with confident gusto, and he gives a soulful performance that should all but ensure a spot on next year's Oscar ballot." Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper each had Kill Bill Vol. 2 on their top ten list for of Academy Awards predictions. Although the films received no notice from the Academy, Carradine did receive a Golden Globe nomination and a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Bill. Carradine had a good part in American Reel (2003) but the overall quality of his roles did not improve: Dead & Breakfast (2004), Last Goodbye (2004), Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon (2004), Brothers in Arms (2005), Miracle at Sage Creek (2005), Final Move (2006), Saints Row (2006) and The Last Sect (2006). David Carradine took over hosting duties from his brother Keith on Wild West Tech on the History Channel, in 2005. The same year, he also played both himself and the ghost of a dead man for an episode of the NBC TV show Medium.

Carradine, who once received an award for being the hardest-working actor in Hollywood, still had approximately a dozen films in post-production at the time of his death in 2009. Most of these roles were cameos or small parts in independent, direct-to-DVD productions. Among them are a horror film, Dark Fields (2009); an action film, Bad Cop (2009); and a Western, All Hell Broke Loose (2009); and Detention (2010), a thriller. He made one last film for Corman, Dinocroc vs. Supergator (2010) directed by Jim Wynorski. Ken Tucker, writing for Entertainment Weekly, said the film was "impeccable" and "goofy fun all the way". He was also in Six Days in Paradise (2010) with Madsen; Money to Burn (2010); Stretch (2011); Highway to Hell (2012); and The Banksters, Madoff with America (2013).

In addition to his acting career, Carradine was a musician. He sang and played the piano, the guitar, and the flute, among other instruments. In 1970, Carradine played one half of a flower-power beatnik duo in the season 4 Ironside episode, "The Quincunx", performing the songs "I Stepped on a Flower", "Lonesome Stranger", and "Sorrow of the Singing Tree". He recorded an album titled Grasshopper, which was released in 1975. His musical talents were often integrated into his screen performances. He performed several of Woody Guthrie's songs for the movie, Bound for Glory. For the Kung Fu series, he made flutes out of bamboo that he had planted on the Warner Brothers lot. He later made several flutes for the movie Circle of Iron, one of which he later played in Kill Bill. Carradine wrote and performed the theme songs for at least two movies that he starred in, Americana and Sonny Boy. The first line from the Sonny Boy theme, "Paint", which he wrote while filming Americana in 1973, is engraved on his headstone. He wrote and performed several songs for American Reel (2003) and wrote the score for You and Me. He and his brother, Robert, also performed with a band, the Cosmic Rescue Team (also known as Soul Dogs). The band performed primarily in small venues and at charity benefits.

Education

By 2006, he had become the spokesperson for Yellowbook, a publisher of independent telephone directories in the United States. He also appeared as Clockwork, the ghost of time, in two episodes of the animated series, Danny Phantom. He had a cameo in Epic Movie (2007) and was in Treasure Raiders (2007), How to Rob a Bank (and 10 Tips to Actually Get Away with It) (2007), Fall Down Dead (2007) (which he helped produce), Permanent Vacation (2007), and Fuego (2007). Carradine played Buckingham in a version of Richard III (2007) which he helped produce, and was in a studio film when he supported Rob Schneider in Big Stan (2007). He did another comedy, Homo Erectus (2007), and was in Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter (2007) and Hell Ride (2008). He starred in the 2008 TV movie, Kung Fu Killer, in which he played a Chinese martial arts master very similar to his Kung Fu series "Caine" persona—his character in this movie named "White Crane", and mostly referred to or addressed as "Crane", frequently pronounced in a manner that minimizes the R sound.

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