David Carradine:the passing of an American film legend

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

December 8, 1936 - June 3, 2009

For many of my generation, David Carradine represents the teaching of dignity and courage. Moderation and understanding; wisdom and tolerance. Of an inevitable movement towards the unity of the diverse and expanding community that we live in today.

In 1972 Hollywood wanted to profit from the surge of worldwide interest in Kung Fu that legendary Bruce Lee had created. But Hollywood felt that putting a real chinese actor and superstar (Bruce Lee) into a key role on prime time television was a risky move that its investors were not yet ready to make.

And so they chose a talented white american actor with deep roots in the conservative American film culture: David Carradine. He became a house hold name to millions of Americans: Kwai Chang Caine; simple Shaolin monk.

The TV series was a great success! Beyond anything that anyone had even imagined!

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With the untimely passing of Bruce Lee, Carradine must have felt some guilt and pressure for having substituted the real star of the moment. David made every effort to compensate for the strange twist of fate that had fallen upon him by trying to transmit in his role the very essence of Shaolin philosophy that Bruce Lee had embodied.

"Because a man can see, he does not look." — Master Po

The series was a world wide success and appeared on Tv between 1972 and 1975 before finally being relegated to re-runs.

The rest of the life of David Carradine was played under the shadow of the success of the highly successful Kung Fu series. But thru it all, and including the highly proclaimed books that Carradine authored, kept his head high and sent a very clear message to his millions of fans: that there is no higher ideal that working for the common good.

In the introduction to ''Spirit of Shaolin'', Carradine wrote:

Our rivers and oceans, our trees, all the animals and vegetables we don't eat, are being phased out. At the rate it's going, there won't be much left for our children, much less our grandchildren. At this moment, the planet is closer to ending as we know it than it has ever been since the great flood. I have, by some chance of fate, been given this opportunity to be a sort of Noah. Hear my plea: perhaps , in a small way, this little book can be of some help. I sure hope so.''

David Carradine's persistence and life-long loyalty to the cause paid off in the Kill Bill films of Tarantino; here Carradine was able to find a medium to pass on the Shaolin philosophy thru humour and action.

Rest in Peace

''There's an alternative. There's always a third way, and it's not a combination of the other two ways. It's a different way.''--David Carradine

Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?

Young Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds.

Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?

Caine: No.

Po: Do you hear the grasshopper that is at your feet?

Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things?

Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?