David Carradine and the art of dying

Is there such a thing as a grand exit?

David Carradine and the art of dying

Is there such a thing as a grand exit? Come to think of it, all we care about are ways of making our mundane lives less mundane. Most of us balk at the thought of death and would rather carry on forever. There are some though who find death seductive and embrace it with spunk and in the case of David Carradine, sperm.

Carradine (he was Bill in Kill Bill) reportedly died while relieving himself. On June 4, 2009, he was found dead in his hotel room in central Bangkok. The Bangkok Post reported that his body was found curled up in the wardrobe with a shoelace tied around his genitals and neck. "Under these circumstances we cannot be sure that he committed suicide but he may have died from masturbation," said a police report. A Kung Fu hero dying while masturbating? Hold on.

According to ex-wife Marina Anderson: "There was a dark side to David. There was a very intense side to David. People around him know that." In her divorce filing she had claimed that "it was the continuation of abhorrent and deviant sexual behaviour which was potentially deadly. His deviate behavior includes an incestuous relationship with a very close family member, which permeated our marriage. This is to his admission and the admission of the person involved."

Carradine has company in hell. Journalist Hunter Thompson, known for his use of psychedelics, alcohol, firearms, and iconoclastic contempt for authority and objective journalism, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at 67, when he felt that game was up and life's become a drag.

What family and police describe as a suicide note was delivered to his wife four days before his death and later published by Rolling Stone. Titled "Football Season Is Over," it read: "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax This won't hurt."

Grand exits have fascinated filmmakers and writers down the ages. Remember Bodhi in Point Break. Patrick Swayze played a surfer and a bank robber who chose to surf on a lethal wave than surrender. As the writer of absurd plays in Bengal once said: "If you have to go, go in style. You either die in the middle of Act I on stage or in the middle of Act III in bed." That's a thought.

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