David is still the kung fu master

Actor David Carradine began his acting career 45 years ago starring in numerous Broadway plays and on major regional stages across the nation.

With more than 125 feature films, 32 plays, and 27 television movies of the week, dramatic specials, and miniseries, David is a member of one of Hollywood’s acting dynasties ~ including his father John, a star of stage and screen during the Golden Age of Hollywood; his daughters Martha Pimpton, Ever Carradine, and Kansas Carradine; and his brothers Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, and Michael Bowen.

The Los Angeles native has become synonymous with martial arts movies after playing Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the classic television series Kung Fu and Kung Fu The Legend Continues, as well as the television movies, “Kung Fu, the Way of the Dragon” and “Kung Fu The Movie,” and the book “Spirit of Shaolin: a Handbook of Kung Fu Philosophy.”

Recently, he has become known to movie audiences as Bill from the films, “Kill Bill Vol I” and “Kill Bill Vol 2.” Other film roles include “Box Car Betha,” “The Long Goodbye,” “The Long Riders,” "Mean Streets,” “Bus Riley’s Back in Town,” “Deathrace 2000,” “Americana,” and “Bird on a Wire.

Besides publishing his autobiography “Endless Highway,” “The Kill Bill Diary,” the martial arts’ books “David Carradine’s Tai Chai Workout” and “The Healing Art of Chi Gung,” David is also a musician, singer, and composer and has released the albums “Grasshopper” and “As Is.” Additionally, David released a series of martial arts’ workout videos.

In this 2008 interview, host Rafael Siegel talks to David about his acting career, his memories on the hit series Kung Fu, and, as part of the promotional tour, his role as Bird, a fierce warrior who resolves to never draw his sword again and leads a peaceful life taking in homeless children, in the movie, “Son of the Dragon," which launched the new Hallmark Movie Channel HD on April 2, 2008.