And a moment of silence as the Kung Fu and Martial Arts community mourns the loss of one of its brightest television stars and icons. Gone to that big Dojo in the sky is David Carradine, perhaps most famous for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, fictional Kung Fu Master, Shaolin Priest and star of ‘Kung Fu’, one of the most popular TV Series of 1970’s.
Rife with martial arts cliches, the show’s main character is Kwai Chang Caine, half Chinese and half American. Orphaned and raised in China by Shaolin Priests, in particular an old and blind Kung Fu master, Kwai Chang eventually sets off to find his half brother - Danny Caine - in America.
Unassuming and a pacifist by nature, Kwai Chang wants only to find Danny and get on with his life, but each episode finds him facing unavoidable conflict either as a direct attack on himself or in defense of the weak and down-trodden. Each episode inevitably has Kwai Chang laying Kung Fu beat downs on would-be bullies.
Carradine played the role to perfection. That said, the concept for the show was actually the brain child of Bruce Lee, who eventually lost the title role to Carradine.
Following a string of forgettable movies, Carradine’s role of Kwai Chang Caine was reprised in a second and related series in the early 1990’s titled ‘Kung Fu: The Legend Continues’.
Following that, Carradine played ‘Bill’ in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’ series of movies: a lethal martial artist, Bill is evil, a sort of bizarro Kwai Chang Caine and leader of a group of deadly sword-wielding martial artists/assassins.
Carradine will be missed and fondly remembered by fans of the martial arts genre.
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