David Carradine is the oldest son of the legendary character actor John
Carradine. His mother, Ardanelle Abigail McCool, had moved to from
Colorado to Hollywood, where she met and married John. Abigail already had a
young son, Bruce, from an earlier, brief marriage, and John adopted the boy.
John and Abigail Carradine
David and his Mom
When John Carradine died in 1988, David took his place as the head of an actors’
dynasty. His brothers Bruce, Keith and Robert are actors,
as is Keith and Robert’s half-brother Michael Bowen. (A fourth brother,
Christopher, is an architect and designer.) The third generation also has
its share of actors, with David’s daughters Calista and Kansas,
Keith’s daughter Martha Plimpton, and Robert’s daughter Ever Carradine
all members of the profession. (David’s son Tom
is not an actor.)
The Carradine-Clan
Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton
After living through a rather unpleasant adolescence and graduating from high
school, David Carradine studied music theory and composition at
San Francisco State College, but soon discovered acting and made his
professional debut in Berkeley with the Theatre of the Golden Hind.
David dropped out of college and eventually found work with the Shakespeare
Repertory Theatre in San Francisco. But jobs were scarce and he sold
encylopedias and lived the beatnik life until he joined the Ohio Repertory
Theater.
Just as David’s career was about to take off, he was drafted into the Army. This
was not the best environment for his naturally rebellious personality, but he
learned combat techniques and how to handle weapons, knowledge that would prove
useful later on as an actor. During his time as a soldier, he put his musical
and acting training to good use, forming an entertainment troupe and producing
and starring in musicals.
After two years of military service, David spent some time in New York, during
which he played Laertes to his father’s Hamlet at a theater on Long
Island. He then signed a contract with Universal Studios and soon
began appearing in small guest roles on television and supporting roles in
feature films.
Upon returning to New York, he made his Broadway debut when he joined the
cast of Rolf Hochhuth’s drama about the Catholic Church and the Nazis, The
Deputy, winning acclaim in the tragic role of Father Riccardo Fontana. He
subsequently enjoyed a genuine critical and popular triumph with his balletic
performance as the Inca King Atahuallpa in Peter Shaffer’s The Royal
Hunt of the Sun. After 261 performances, he left Broadway to return to
Hollywood.
In 1966 he won the lead role in the television remake of the movie classic
Shane. Unfortunately the series was short-lived, but it did get David
a lot of publicity. He then returned to guest roles on television and supporting
roles in features. In 1972 he played his first leading role in a feature film,
Boxcar Bertha, which was the legendary director Martin
Scorsese's first Hollywood movie, and the first of many films David made for
B-movie producer Roger Corman. The movie’s star, Barbara Hershey,
was David’s partner at the time. Afterwards David returned to smaller roles in
films, but then came the series that would make him a worldwide star.
David Carradine was cast in the role of his life as Kwai Chang Caine, the
Chinese-American Shaolin monk wandering the old West in the ABC series
Kung Fu. For the next three years he focused mainly on the
series, which made him not merely famous but a worldwide superstar. In its first
season, Kung Fu was nominated for seven Emmys, including a nomination for
David Carradine as Best Actor.
David also worked on his own film projects at this time, sinking much of his
Kung Fu earnings into two films which he produced, directed and starred in. You
and Me (for which David also co-wrote the music) portrayed the
bond between a stoic biker and a little runaway boy, and Americana examined
small-town life through the eyes of a Vietnam war veteran who seeks healing
through the restoration of a Kansas town’s broken-down merry-go-round.
For his performance as musician and activist Woody Guthrie in Hal Ashby's
Bound for Glory (1976) David was named Best Actor by the
National Board of Review
and nominated for a Golden Globe. Another outstanding performance from
this time is his role as an American trapeze artist in 1930s Berlin in Ingmar
Bergman's
The Serpent's Egg (1977).
David’s other notable films in the 1970s included Paul Bartel’s Death Race
2000 (1975),
Circle of Iron (1978), adapted from a
script by Bruce Lee, James Coburn and Stirling Silliphant, and the submarine
disaster film Gray Lady Down (1978).
The Long Riders (1979), which tells the story of the Jesse James
gang, is considered one of his David’s best movies. Directed by Walter Hill,
The Long Riders brought together several brother acting teams, including
David, Keith and Robert Carradine as the three Younger
brothers, an integral part of Jesse James’s gang of bank robbers.
Americana was finally released in 1983, and for his work as director,
David won the People’s Prize at the “Director’s Fortnight” -- the
"Quinzaine des Réalisateur" -- at the Cannes Film Festival.
David revived the character of Kwai Chang Caine for television in Kung Fu:
The Movie in 1986 and then played Caine’s grandson (of the same name) in the
TNT cable series
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. The show was
a success and lasted for four seasons, from January 1993 to January 1997.
TTo this date David has acted in more than 140 movies, and has made many
television guest appearances in shows such as Airwolf, Matlock, Dr.
Quinn, Medicine Woman and Medium. Some of his other notable roles are
Rawley Wilkes in
Lone Wolf McQuade (1983), Justin LaMotte in
the popular TV mini-series North and South (1985), and country singer
James Lee Springer in
American Reel (2003). He returned briefly
to the stage in Black Elk Speaks.
In 1997 David received a star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame.
Between 2000 and 2002, David took a break from feature films, appearing mostly
in television. He returned to the big screen in Quentin Tarantino's
two-part revenge epic, Kill Bill,
vols. 1 and
2. He plays the title character, Bill, the
leader of a group of assassins and the former lover, now target, of Uma
Thurman’s revengeful Bride. Although David was not seen, only heard in Kill
Bill, vol. 1, he played a prominent role in vol. 2,
and for his performance, he received unanimous praise from the critics and
movie-going public and once again was nominated for a Golden Globe Best
Supporting actor award.
Over the years David's passion for music and arts has continued unabated. He has
composed and recorded more than 60 songs in various musical genres, has
often performed his own songs in films and in his TV shows, and also gives
concerts.
He also expresses his creativity by painting and sculpting. He has
even tried out the art of photography.
And his writing talent should not remain unmentioned: David Carradine wrote
about his life in his 600-page autobiography Endless Highway, which
includes several of his beautiful and expressive song lyrics. He is also the
author of The Spirit of Shaolin, about the philosophy of kung fu. His
newest book is The Kill Bill Diary (forthcoming, November 2006), which
recounts his experiences during the filming of Tarantino’s action epic.
David has also produced and starred in a number of exercise videos teaching tai
chi and qi gong. gong.
In December 2004 David married for the fifth time. He says of himself:
"…When I started to get married, I realized some things. I am a serial
monogamist…"
David’s first wife was dancer and teacher Donna Lee Brecht. They
were married 1960 and divorced in ? Their daughter, Calista Miranda, was
born in 1962.
Calista Carradine as Mata Harii Harii
In 1969 he met Barbara Hershey, and they immediately
became a couple. Barbara is the mother of David’s son Free, born in 1972,
who later changed his name to Tom. David and Barbara ended their
relationship in 1975.
Barbara Hershey and Tom (Free) Carradineradine
In 1977 David married Linda Gilbert, mother of his
second daughter
Kansas Anne, who was born April 19, 1978. David and Linda were divorced in
1983.
Linda Gilbert und Kansas Carradineradine
Gail JensenJensen
Coco d'Este (Marina Anderson)erson)
Today David Carradine lives with his fifth wife Annie
Biermann, whom he married on December 26th, 2004 in a low-key
ceremony at Santa Monica Beach. Together with her four children and two dogs
they live in a house near Los Angeles.
Linda Gilbert und Kansas Carradineradine
Coco d'Este (Marina Anderson)erson)
Annie and David with kids and dogs dogs 
