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.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS