David
Carradine
David
Carradine
David Carradine is
best known for his roles as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s
television series Kung Fu (as well as the sequels in the 1980s
and 1990s), 'Big' Bill Shelly in Martin Scorsese's Boxcar
Bertha (1972), folksinger Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory
(1976), Abel Rosenberg in Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg
(1977), and as Bill in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill
(2003,2004).
Other notable roles include the lead in
Shane (the 1966 television series based upon the 1949 novel of
the same name) and a gunslinger in Taggart, a 1964 western film
based on a novel by Louis L'Amour. More recently, he portrayed
Tempus on the television series Charmed, Conrad in the
television series Alias. He currently appears as the host of
Wild West Tech on the History Channel, taking over the duties
from his brother Keith.
David Carradine is also known for producing
and starring in several exercise videos
teaching the martial arts of Tai chi and Qi Gong
exercises. Carradine actually had no knowledge of martial arts
prior to starring in the series Kung Fu, but developed an
interest in it after this experience and has since become an
avid practitioner.
David Carradine also narrated the PBS
anthropology series "Faces of Culture".
Some scholars have referred to Carradine's
role in Kung Fu as an example of a modern Yellowface actor.
Carradine's role on Kung Fu (1972-1975) was
originally promised and show concept (originally tentatively
titled "the Warrior") was created by Jeet Kune Do creator and
martial arts legend Bruce Lee. However the studio purportedly
recast the part with Carradine because of their belief that a
Chinese leading man would not be embraced by an early 1970s
American TV audience.
The original show was to take place in China
(this is when Bruce Lee was considered). The studio spin
was that the producers decided they wanted the show to take
place in America, so the idea was sought to have the main
character be half white. This way the racist townsfolk and/or
bad guys wouldn't quite know if he were Chinese or not.
Carradine's character Kwai Chang Caine was half white (his
father was American) and the studio claimed that it would have
been very difficult to believe that a full blooded Chinese man
would be able to walk from town to town in the American West in
the 1800s. This is despite the fact that many of the shows
centered around the bigotry that Caine faced being Chinese the
characters in the series obviously knew that Caine was Chinese
and he was forced to use his then unknown Kung Fu skills to
defend himself and others from the various antagonists and
situations presented on the show
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