Actor David Carradine, who starred as a wandering monk in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu, was yesterday found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok, where he was working on a movie. He was 72.
After preliminary investigations police are assuming no foul play was involved.
Police were investigating the cause of death, said Lori Binder, a representative for Carradine's Los Angeles-based talent manager Chuck Binder. Ms Binder said Mr Carradine, a member of a family of performers and son of well-known character actor John Carradine, was in Thailand to shoot a film called Stretch.
Police said they were alerted to the death of the actor - who starred as the wandering monk in the long-running Kung Fu US television series - yesterday morning.
Lieutenant Colonel Pirom Jantrapirom of the Lumpini police station in Bangkok said there were no signs of any other people in the room. The body has been transferred to a hospital for an autopsy.
US embassy official Michael Turner earlier confirmed Mr Carradine's death and said that the body had been found at Bangkok's Nailert Hotel.
David Carradine began his career in TV westerns such as Wagon Train and The Virginian in the 1960s but it was the role of Caine, the wandering monk in "Kung Fu," that earned the actor his greatest fame.
The series aired on US television starting in 1972 and immediately won a large fan base among those who marvelled at the action spawned by the martial arts expert as he travelled through America's Old West. The show spawned a movie and numerous other offshoots.
Mr Carradine starred in numerous TV shows and movies in subsequent years - including director Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) where he was cast as the enigmatic assassin leader Bill in the director's violent exploitation homage.
The movies were a sensation, bringing Mr Carradine a legion of younger fans who were not yet born during his original Kung Fu run. Mr Carradine received his fourth Golden Globe nomination for Kill Bill: Vol. 2.
Mr Carradine is survived by his wife, Annie Bierman, whom he married in 2004.