Later in his career, he became known for his B movie and martial arts roles, but experienced a resurgence after playing the title character in Quentin Tarantino 's Kill Bill duology. Throughout his life, Carradine was arrested and prosecuted for a variety of offenses, which often involved substance abuse.
In addition to his acting career, Carradine was a director and musician. Influenced by his Kung Fu role, he studied martial arts, particularly Shaolin quan.
Carradine was born John Arthur Carradine Jr. His parents divorced and repeatedly remarried; he was born during his mother's second marriage of three, and his father's first of four. At the time of Carradine's parents' marriage, his mother already had a son by her first husband, whom John Carradine adopted.
John Carradine had planned to have a large family, but later he discovered his wife had gotten two abortions without his knowledge, and afterward a miscarriage rendered her unable to carry a baby to term. Against this backdrop of marital discord, Carradine almost died by suicide [ 14 ] by hanging at the age of five.
He said the incident followed his discovery that he and his elder half-brother, Bruce, had different biological fathers. Carradine added, "My father saved me, and then confiscated my comic book collection and burned itβwhich was scarcely the point. His father left California to avoid court action in the alimony settlement. On December 25, , Carradine appeared in a live telecast adaptation of A Christmas Carol , with his father in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. Carradine spent time in Massachusetts, and a winter milking cows on a farm in Vermont.
