In this Wednesday, March 10, 2004 file photo, actor David Carradine poses for a photo at his home in the Tarzana section of Los Angeles. Carradine Was Found Dead, Hanged in Closet of Bangkok Hotel Room
(AP Photo)Actor David Carradine was found dead in the closet of a Bangkok hotel room Thursday with a cord wrapped around his neck and genitals, leading Thai police to suspect his death was not a suicide but an accident resulting from dangerous sex practices.
Carradine, 72, best known for his role in the 1970s television drama "Kung Fu," was found by a chamber maid at Bangkok's Park Nai Lert Hotel naked and dead, slumped in a closet with cords bound and connecting his neck and his genitals, Bangkok police said.
"The two ropes were tied together," Police Lt. Gen. Worapong Chewprecha told reporters. "It is unclear whether he committed suicide or not or he died of suffocation or heart failure."
Citing Porntip Rojanasunan, the director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, told the Bangkok Post that the actor may have died from auto-erotic asphyxiation, the practice of cutting off one's air supply to heighten sexual pleasure. Carradine had been in Thailand since May 29 to shoot his latest film, "Stretch."
Thai Police completed the autopsy Friday, but would not release the results until next week, Police Col. Somprasong Yenthuam told the Associated Press.
Somprasong said there was no indication that there was someone else in the room with Carradine at the time of his death.
Recently discovered court documents from the actor's latest divorce posted by The Smoking Gunsuggest that Carradine may have have long history of "deviant sexual behavior which was potentially deadly," according to ex-wife Marina Anderson.
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