R.I.P.: David Carradine (1936-2009)

David Carradine worked with everyone from Ingmar Bergman to Quentin Tarantino, Charlton Heston to Rob Schneider, Tom Selleck to Mel Gibson, in movies and TV series of wildly uneven quality, in just about every conceivable genre, during a screen acting career that spanned five decades. But it’s the role that made him a ‘70s icon – Kwai Chang Caine, the mystical martial artist adrift in the Wild West of Kung Fu – for which he remains, now and likely forever, best known. He seemed to be a good sport about being so closely identified with Caine, even to the point of more or less reprising the character in an updated ‘90s spin-off series (Kung Fu: The Legend Continues) and frequently spoofing it in various movies and TV commercials. But he also demonstrated his versatility in an impressive variety of roles while amassing scads of credits as a steadily employed character actor. That he often appeared in Westerns -- Heaven with a Gun (1969), Macho Callahan (1970), The Long Riders (1980), and Last Stand at Saber River (1997), among others -- seemed altogether appropriate for an actor who made his first major breakthrough as the lead in Shane, the short-lived but fondly remembered 1966 TV series based on George Stevens' classic Western film. He also played the bad guy who tried to get medieval on Chuck Norris in Lone Wolf McQuade, which you can watch here.