Grasshopper has died, and it's a really weird case. If you don't know who I mean, you probably aren't from my generation. Grasshopper is David Carradine, star of the '70s TV show Kung Fu and subsequent martial arts-themed films like Kill Bill. Either way, the 72-year-old guy was found nude and hanged in Bangkok, Thailand with new reports of a rope around his neck and genitals and there may be an FBI investigation. Oy.
Tough way to go, or maybe not. According to reports, Carradine, the quietest and most-reclusive member of the famous family of actors, was set to shoot a new film in Thailand when he was found. Authorities are going back and forth on whether there was foul play, it was suicide or rather the result of auto-erotic asphyxiation gone wrong. His sad and much-conjectured-about death (foul play or suicide? It's not known yet, but Carradine was not known to be depressed) reminds of Michael Hutchence of INXS, who left this earth via auto-erotic asphyxiation in 1997, in spite of a huge career, hot girlfriend in Helena Christensen, and later, a daughter by wife Paula Yates. He even has a blue term named after him.Why do successful people carelessly end it all, if they do? On Larry King last night, the not-usually-quotable actor Rob Schneider suggested that Carradine's death, like other martial arts figure Bruce Lee's, might never be solved. He thought Carradine would like it that way.
