THE idea that David would do himself in is impossible. David was the opposite of suicidal.
At 72, whatever issues he had to work through, he had already worked through. Depression was never anything that seemed to be part of his life.
I always thought that after “Kill Bill,” things could have opened up for him. I thought he would have been taken out of the B-movie world and remembered by the industry that had forgotten him. It didn’t happen that way.
But he had a lot of things lined up — he was booked, as they say. Getting hired and being wanted and needed is what every actor is after.
David was one of the first actors I ever worked with when I started my career and the closest person to a brother that I ever had in my life. It is shocking to me that he is no longer with us. I had been thinking about calling him for the last several days, and advise anybody who has been thinking about reaching out to a loved one to do so.
I first met him 20 years ago, when we were working on a Roger Corman picture. He pulled up onto the set in a red Maserati — he drove right into the shot. They asked him to move the car, which — of course — he didn’t.
He had such a natural-born talent in front of the camera. And there was no subject you could bring up with him that he didn’t know a lot about.
He had grace. When he hit people, he even delivered the blows with grace.
A lot of people don’t know that originally Warren Beatty was going to play Bill. But director Quentin Tarantino called me and said it wasn’t going to work. Warren didn’t understand the screenplay — he didn’t get that it was a love story.
David, on the other hand, brought all his history to that role. He was the guy who perhaps next only to Bruce Lee has become the symbol of martial arts in America. It’s much harder to imagine Warren Beatty swinging a sword around or having been an assassin.
I suppose because we were playing brothers in the movie, we became very emotionally and intellectually close. I always wished I had a brother, and David really filled that position for me.
David recently agreed to record some of my writing in a spoken-word album. The studio called me up and said he was incredible. They said he played the piano, and even sang “Somewhere over the rainbow.”
I haven’t listened to that yet, and it’s going to be hard to now. This is a tremendous loss.
Actor Michael Madsen co-starred with David Carradine in several movies, including the “Kill Bill” movies and “Hell Ride.”