David Carradine's mysterious death

Details are trickling out about actor David Carradine's death, said Radar Online, but the mystery just seems to get murkier. A maid in a Bangkok hotel found Carradine—best known as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu—dangling naked in a closet. Police say it looks as if Carradine, 72, hanged himself, although a hotel staff member said Carradine appeared in good spirits the last time he was spotted in the lobby.

Thai police are looking into whether Carradine's death was an accident, said Tim Johnston in The Washington Post. Investigators say the actor, who was found with a cord wrapped around his neck and genitals, "most likely died of asphyxiation, possibly when an auto-erotic sex game went wrong."

"It's become painfully clear that David Carradine had wrestled with suicidal thoughts" long before this tragedy, said TMZ.com. In a 2004 interview Carradine said he once considered shooting himself. The actor, who was an accomplished musician as well, also released a song on his website called "Big Mack Truck," about a man thinking about ending his life "by walking into traffic."

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People close to David Carradine say he would never have committed suicide, said Guy Adams in Britain's The Independent. Carradine's personal manager, Chuck Binder, said the actor was "full of life, always wanting to work," and called the death a tragic accident. Carradine died shortly after arriving in Thailand to start filming of a movie called Stretch.

No matter how David Carradine died, said Clark Collis in Entertainment Weekly, he will be missed. Carradine—also remembered for his role as a steely assassin in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films—"was a sly, devilish, and at times downright freaky movie presence who, when he appeared on screen, automatically made matters twice as interesting."