celebrity.estateAn EGRET.LAW propertyWorld map3D timeline
Home / Hollywood and TV / David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok closet in 2009; Thai police said suicide, the…
Case file s1883 · Hollywood and TV · 2009
See 2009 on the timelineSee it in 3D
2009
David Carradine: David Carradine at the premiere of Polanski Unauthorized
David Carradine. Credit to lukeford.net (permission statement at en:User:Tabercil/Luke Ford permission). CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
3 or 4 June 2009 (found 4 June)
Place
Swissotel Nai Lert Park, Bangkok · Thailand
Field
film and television actor (Kung Fu) · Film and television on the timeline
Legal tradition
Thai criminal procedure; US common law (wrongful death) · Common law · Chinese and East Asian law
Historical event
Production of the film Stretch in Thailand
Member of
Democratic Party (Wikidata)
Hollywood and TVBodies, bones and burialsNowEast AsiaThailand

David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok closet in 2009; Thai police said suicide, the family's pathologist said accident, and his widow sued the film company

David Carradine arrived in Bangkok on 31 May 2009 to shoot Stretch. He missed a meal on 3 June and was found dead on 4 June in a hotel closet, aged 72. Thai police said he had hanged himself with a curtain cord and showed no sign of struggle. They noted no suicide note and a rope tied to his neck and genitals. On 1 July 2009 pathologist Michael Baden, hired by the family, said Carradine died of asphyxiation and that the way the body was bound ruled out suicide. A June 2009 Fox News report linked the death to auto-erotic asphyxiation. In June 2010 his widow, Annie Carradine, filed a wrongful death suit against MK2 SA, the French production company. The suit alleges the company was negligent: the assistant responsible for his schedule and transport left him at the hotel and told him to arrange his own ride. It also alleges she had difficulty collecting on an insurance policy MK2 was required to carry. Her lawyer was Mark Geragos. The amount sought, the court and the outcome were not stated in the reports found†. Carradine is buried at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills.

What the law took from it

A death abroad produces two official causes, and the money claims that follow depend on which one a court accepts.

Family version vs. the record

Thai police: suicide by hanging ( Family pathologist Baden: accidental asphyxiation (

BBC Newsabc7ny.com
Sources
  1. abcnews.comPress
  2. BBC NewsPress
  3. abc7ny.comPress
  4. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok closet in 2009; Thai police said suicide, the family's pathologist said accident, and his widow sued the film company,” story s1883, https://www.celebrity.estate/david-carradine-2009, updated 30 October 2026.

Related cases

Each one shares a person, a kind of fight, a subject, a period or a place with this case. The line under each headline says which.

Anita Mui: Avenue of Stars, Anita Mui (Ank Kumar)2003 · Hong KongAnita Mui put her estate in a trust to keep it from her mother; the mother sued for 20 years, went bankrupt, and died in 2026 after Mui's ashes went missingShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Hollywood and TV; 6 years apart; also East AsiaAnita Mui died of cervical cancer in December 2003, aged 40. Shortly before, she signed a will that put most of her estate in a trust administered by HSBC International Trustee.taipeitimes.com and 5 moreKen Takakura: 国際情報社『映画情報』第31巻1月号(1966)より高倉健2014 · Keio University Hospital, Tokyo, JapanKen Takakura's adopted daughter cremated him before his family knew he had died, and inherited his estate and film rightsShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Hollywood and TV; 5 years apart; also East AsiaKen Takakura, born Oda Takeichi, made 205 films. In 2013 he adopted Takatsuki Oda, a former actress 33 years younger who had lived with him since 1997. As his adopted child she became his heir.friday.kodansha.co.jp and 3 moreMarlon Brando: Marlon Brando publicity for One-Eyed Jacks2004 · Los Angeles, CaliforniaMarlon Brando's $21.6 million will left out one child, and a son's girlfriend scattered part of his ashesShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Hollywood and TV; 5 years apartMarlon Brando died at UCLA Medical Center on July 1, 2004, at 80. His will, signed on August 28, 2002, and filed on July 9, 2004, in Los Angeles County Superior Court, valued his estate at $21.6 million.Los Angeles Times and 1 moreNatalie Wood: Natalie Wood Allan Warren1981 · Catalina Island, CaliforniaNatalie Wood drowned off Santa Catalina Island in 1981, and in 2012 the Los Angeles coroner changed her death certificate to "drowning and other undetermined factors"Shared: bodies, bones and burials; also Hollywood and TV; 28 years apartNatalie Wood, 43, was last seen on the yacht Splendour, anchored off Catalina Island, with her husband Robert Wagner, actor Christopher Walken and the boat's captain, Dennis Davern. Her body was found in the water the next morning.The Hollywood Reporter and 4 moreZsa Zsa Gabor: Zsa Zsa Gabor - 19592016 · Los Angeles, CaliforniaZsa Zsa Gabor's husband ran her estate as conservator and moved most of her ashes to BudapestShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Hollywood and TV; 7 years apartZsa Zsa Gabor married nine times. Her last husband, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, married her in 1986 and became conservator of her estate.tmz.com and 3 moreGary Coleman: GaryColemanE3May052010 · Provo, UtahA Utah judge ruled Gary Coleman's ex-wife was not his common-law wife; his ashes were locked in a vaultShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Hollywood and TV; 1 year apartGary Coleman starred as a child in "Diff'rent Strokes." In 1989 he sued his adoptive parents and a former adviser for misusing his trust fund and won a $1.28 million judgment in 1993.CNN and 1 more

Where this case sits

Hollywood and TVBodies, bones and burialsNowEast AsiaCommon lawChinese and East Asian lawThailand