David Carradine is dead.
To figure out the inner workings of my mind, it may or may not be important to know that David Carradine was one of my heroes, if not "the hero" of my life.
I never met him, never knew what he was like in real life, never even sent him a letter. But, through the roles he played on television and film, he gave me a sort of anchor in my mind.
The first time I remember seeing him was in Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. His grace of movement and speech was instantly calming to me. When I was in elementary school, Kung Fu: TLC was like my crack, except it was a relaxing, escapist sort of crack that had no real side effects besides my angry mother telling me I needed to do the dishes, "Or else!"
As I grew older, I followed his career obsessively, getting my grubby little hands on all sorts of his movies. My favorites are Sundown, the story of a vampire town that is coming to grips with vampirism by making their own blood, and Dead & Breakfast (even though he was only in it for a few scenes) which is a hoedown sort of zombie musical. Kill Bill 2 was also awesome, but I've only seen it three or four times (twice in the theatres) as opposed to the 20 or so times I've seen each of his other movies and TV episodes.
I'm sorry David Carradine is dead (allegedly he hung himself while in Bangkok), but it's for my own selfish reasons. I want him to keep making movies, so I can watch them. Or, even better, TV shows, so I can watch him even more. I do have to say, I'm glad he lived, because his legacy will live on, at least in my house, where I can experience the characters he portrayed for years to come.
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