Hundreds gathered to honor David Carradine at a sprawling hillside cemetery during a funeral that was attended by family, former co-stars and other Hollywood friends.
The invitation-only services were held indoors Saturday at the Hall of Liberty at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills, a 160-hectare cemetery laid out adjacent to Los Angeles’ Griffith Park.
Mostly gloomy skies prevailed outside, with cold blasts of wind sweeping across the cemetery. The funeral lasted more than two hours and as more than 400 mourners left, clouds parted in the west offering a magnificent sunset.
Guests gathered and hugged outside the hall, where security ensured only invited guests gained entry.
They gathered more than a week after Carradine, 72, was found hanging in a Bangkok hotel room on June 4. Thai authorities continue to investigate his death. A statement released on Thursday by a private pathologist said suicide had been ruled out as a cause of death.
Carradine’s family stayed out of sight from a small group of reporters and cameras. His burial was private. Brothers Keith and Robert Carradine asked for privacy and understanding while the family mourned in a statement released on Thursday.
Keith Carradine briefly appeared outside before the service and greeted some people before heading back inside.
Among the hundreds of guests were numerous actors, including Michael Madsen, Jane Seymour, Tom Selleck, Frances Fisher, Daryl Hannah, Lucy Liu, Edward James Olmos, Ali Larter and James Cromwell. Rob Schneider also attended, carrying a basket of flowers.
Madsen and Liu both starred alongside Carradine in Quentin Tarantino’s two-part Kill Bill saga. Carradine married his fifth wife, Annie Bierman, at Madsen’s home in 2004.
Carradine is perhaps best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine on three seasons of the 1970s hit show Kung Fu.
He later went on to star in the cult flick Death Race 2000 and in Ingmar Bergman’s The Serpent’s Egg in 1977, but by the 1980s his career arc had moved to lower-budget fare.
He continued to foster interests in Asian herbs, exercise and philosophy, and made instructional videos on tai chi and other martial arts.
Tarantino’s Kill Bill films offered Carradine a career resurgence. His role as the titular character earned Carradine a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor for his role in Kill Bill — Vol. 2.
Carradine’s father, John, was a character actor whose 50-year stage and screen career began during Hollywood’s early years.
Some mourners on Saturday opted for bits of Western flair, with some sporting cowboy boots and hats and turquoise jewelry. Keith Carradine wore a bolo tie.
Programs handed out to guests included a photo of a smiling Carradine in a tuxedo on the cover and sketch of the actor on the back, above lyrics to Midnight Rider by The Allman Brothers Band.
The program indicated several remembrances by Carradine’s family and song selections that included The Beatles’ Let It Be and Ludwig von Beethoven’s Requiem for a Fallen Hero.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS