In Memoriam: David Carradine, 1936-2009

[thatcrazycajun]

Shocking news has come from Bangkok, Thailand, where actor David Carradine was found dead in his hotel room of hanging at 72. He was in the city to film a new movie entitled Stretch. Police believe his death to be a suicide, though he was not known publicly to be suffering from depression or other mental ailment. An obituary can be found here.

Best known for his iconic role as Shaolin monk Kwai-Chang Caine, which he played for three seasons in the 1970s ABC TV series Kung Fu, Carradine came from a stage and film thespian dynasty that began with his late father John and continued with him and his brothers Keith and Robert. down to his niece Ever. He also made something of a comeback a few years ago, when filmmaker Quentin Tarantino cast him as the titular villain in his two-film opus Kill Bill. Carradine made more than 100 pictures in his lifetime, but never got much more than four Golden Globe nominations for his work...which is a scandal to the jaybirds, as far as Your Humble Correspondent is concerned.

My heart, thoughts and prayers are with his entire family, his friends, co-workers and fans in this most difficult hour. If I knew the Chinese words for "thank you and goodbye," I would most certainly be using them now.

Comments

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

谢谢和再見

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Thank you is xie xie or dor xie (at least that's how they sound to me).

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

"Thank you" is "szèszè" (using the romanization I remember from college), pronounced SHEHsheh, more or less.

And like English there are several ways to say "goodbye." The one I remember is dzàijyàn (dzeye jen, again more or less). It literally means "see you again" so this may or may not be appropriate depending on your personal views of the afterlife.

All of these are in the fourth tone, which starts high and goes to neutral, kind of like the "Down" in "Down boy!!"