Crime Chronics

According to AP actor David Carradine (b.1936), star of the 1970s, best known for his work in the 1970s television series Kung Fu, was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room in Bangkok and was believed to have committed suicide.

In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. One of his prominent early film roles was as singer Woody Guthrie in Ashby’s 1976 biopic “Bound for Glory.”

He reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine’s grandson in the 1990s syndicated series “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.”

According to Carradine’s agent, the 72-year-old “Kung Fu” and “Kill Bill” star was in Thailand for a movie.

David’s agent told WABC that he believes the actor died of natural causes. He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino’s two-part saga “Kill Bill.”

Thai police completed an autopsy on Carradine on Friday. But Police Col. Somprasong Yenthuam, superintendent of the Lumpini police station, which is handling the case, said results would not be ready for at least three weeks because the cause of death was unclear. He called the time lag “normal.”

Dr. Nanthana Sirisap, director of Chulalongkorn Hospital’s Autopsy Center, told reporters that the autopsy was conducted because of the “unusual circumstances surrounding Carradine’s death,” but did not elaborate.

Police Lt. Teerapop Luanseng had said Thursday that Carradine’s body was found “naked, hanging in a closet,” and that police at the time suspected suicide.

But one of Carradine’s managers dismissed the theory.

“All we can say is, we know David would never have committed suicide,” said Tiffany Smith of Binder & Associates, his management company. “We’re just waiting for them to finish the investigation and find out what really happened. He really appreciated everything life has to give … and that’s not something David would ever do to himself.”

UD.Police continue to say there is no evidence there was anyone else in the room at the time of Carradine’s death.

There is speculation that Carradine died of autoerotic asphyxiation, a life-threatening means to heighten sexual arousal by robbing the brain of oxygen.

A member of the actor’s management team rejected the theory that the actor committed suicide and said he had been in good spirits when he left for Bangkok on May 29 to film a new movie entitled Stretch.

“All we can say is, we know David would never have committed suicide,” Tiffany Smith of Binder & Associates, which managed Carradine’s career, told The Associated Press from Beverly Hills, Calif.

“We’re just waiting for them to finish the investigation and find out what really happened. He really appreciated everything life has to give … and that’s not something David would ever do to himself.”