It’s surprising to me how affected I am by the news that David Carradine was just found dead in Bangkok. If you don’t know much about him, David started his TV career as Kane in the series Kung Fu. He later made a comeback with a second Kung Fu series and then finally re-invented himself with the “Kill Bill” films.

Now it’s not that he was a brilliant actor, or a brilliant martial artist, or even a great humanitarian. Fact is, he wasn’t any of those things; and yet, he meant a great deal to me. So I have to ask myself...why?

I think it had alot to do with his character on “Kung Fu” the Shoalin monk Caine. I very much gravitated towards the message of fairness and protecting the weak that Caine embodied. Caine also had a great respect for life and preached the value of meditation and introspection. Now, I was a bit of an awkward kid and did get picked on, but I had the benefit of being big enough to fight for myself. There were many kids who weren’t so lucky and it used to outrage me. It was at this time that I found the show and begged my parents to let me study martial arts. They didn’t understand it and said no so I had to wait until college, but I never forgot the lessons I learned. David played that role with such believability that it really helped to shape the way I thought. Crazy that a TV show and an actor can do that.

So thank you David. I’ll miss you.

- Jeff