RIP Ernest Borgnine

They don't make actors like Ernest Borgnine anymore. The Academy Award winning actor died yesterday at the age of 95.

RIP Adam Yauch

My thoughts and prayers go out to Adam Yauch's friends and family. The name might not be familiar to everyone, but his band, The Beastie Boys, certainly is.

Yauch passed away from complications from salivary cancer at the age of 47. The group had just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, but Yauch wasn't able to attend due to his health:

Adam Yauch, who performed under the stage name MCA, is dead after losing a long battle with cancer, according to reports from Global Grind and TMZ.

The 47-year-old member of the Beastie Boys announced he would be receiving treatment for a cancerous tumor in his salivary gland in July 2009, and that that as a result the group would cancel some future shows and push back the release of a new album.

In 2011 it had been reported that Yauch had beaten the disease, but reports were sadly exaggerated. On the band's website he wrote:

"Hello My Friends While I’m grateful for all the positive energy people are sending my way, reports of my being totally cancer free are exaggerated. I’m continuing treatment, staying optimistic and hoping to be cancer free in the near future."

Most recently, it appeared Yauch's health had taken a turn for the worst when it was announced that he was unable to attend the Beastie Boys' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on March 14.

There goes another piece of my childhood:

RIP Dick Clark

Dick Clark will be truly missed. He was instrumental in getting music out there to the masses - introducing the world to some of what are now the most famous names in music, along with plenty other acts who were deserving of recognition.

Clark endured accusations that he was in with the squares, with critic Lester Bangs defining Bandstand as "a leggily acceptable euphemism of the teenage experience." In a 1985 interview, Clark acknowledged the complaints. "But I knew at the time that if we didn't make the presentation to the older generation palatable, it could kill it."

"So along with Little Richard and Chuck Berry and the Platters and the Crows and the Jayhawks ... the boys wore coats and ties and the girls combed their hair and they all looked like sweet little kids into a high school dance," he said.

But Clark defended pop artists and artistic freedom, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said in an online biography of the 1993 inductee. He helped give black artists their due by playing original R&B recordings instead of cover versions by white performers, and he condemned censorship.

He always seemed cheerful, regardless of the circumstances and seemed to revel in being always busy.

Not only was he a shrewd businessman who made the most of his opportunities and translated a job on American Bandstand into a multibillion dollar media empire. At the same time, he was always a highlight of the New Year's Eve show - and his successor Ryan Seacrest can only hope to have half the career that Clark did (and that would be pretty damn successful too).

Music Legend Jim Marshall Passed Away

Jim Marshall, guitar amp pioneer, has passed away at the age of 88.

Born in London in 1923, Marshall started out as a drummer before going into business and founding Marshall Amplification in 1962.

He began making guitar amplifiers in Britain as a cheaper alternative to U.S. imports, and soon after legendary musicians including Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton were using his equipment.

He is revered as one of the four forefathers of rock music equipment along with Leo Fender, Les Paul and Seth Lover.

If you're listening to rock and roll, odds are that you're listening to music conceived or recorded involving Marshall amps.

Music would sound a whole lot different without Marshall amps. Some of the biggest acts and guitar musicians in the world use them, including AC/DC's Angus and Malcolm Young, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Slash (of Guns n' Roses), Keith Richards, Richie Samborra, and many others.

Westboro Baptists Claim Protest of Whitney Houston Funeral; Lie About Protesting

Newark, New Jersey hosted the funeral of singer and actress Whitney Houston today a week after she was found dead in a hotel room in Los Angeles. The funeral was a closed affair, but was streamed online for the public. Police had cordoned off the area in anticipation of the crowds that were sure to come out to pay their respects.

Also claiming to come out to show their hate: the Westboro Baptists. However, it appears that they did no such thing:

... they broke the Ninth Commandment when Margie Phelps, the daughter of church founder Fred Phelps, tweeted a photo purporting to show the church's protest in front of Whitney Houston's funeral in Newark. However, reporters for the Star-Ledger "confirmed no active protests were occurring in the place depicted by the photograph."

Here's the photo in question:

Death of a Despotic Dictator - Kim Jong-il Dead at 69

North Koreans have not experienced anything other than a dynastic dictatorship since before the Korean War. The cult of personality that surrounds the Kim family is all-pervasive and thorough coopts and corrupts the worldview of North Koreans.

So, when Kim Jong Il died yesterday, supposedly of a heart attack while on a train carrying out inspections of the country a couple of days ago (but publicly acknowledged today), the North Korean media goes through the ritualized process of openly weeping for the dead dictator and praying for his successor, his son Kim Jong-un.

The outpouring of grief around North Korea is highly stylized and is an outgrowth of the cult of personality, but it's also a way of showing loyalty to the regime; if someone doesn't show sufficient amount of grief in these public displays, they may wonder whether someone will snitch on them or the North Korean security apparatus will deal with them. These displays are not necessarily genuine.

The North had kept news of the death of its leader secret for roughly two days, perhaps a sign that the leadership was struggling to position itself for what many believe could be a particularly perilous transition.

A few hours after the announcement, the ruling Workers’ Party and other state institutions released a joint statement suggesting Mr. Kim’s chosen successor, his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, was in charge.

The statement called the son "the great successor to the revolution" and "the eminent leader of the military and the people." It was the first time North Korea referred to the son as "leader" since his ailing father pulled him out of obscurity in September last year and made him a four-star general and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party.

The Workers’ Party said that “Under the leadership of our comrade Kim Jong-un, we have to turn sadness into strength and courage, and overcome today’s difficulties.”

K.C.N.A., the official news agency, said North Korean soldiers and citizens were swearing allegiance to Kim Jong-un. People on the streets of Pyongyang broke into tears as they learned of Mr. Kim’s death, The Associated Press reported from Pyongyang.

Kim Jong-un is believed to be in his late 20s and his youth and relative inexperience could make him vulnerable to power struggles; some analysts have questioned the depth of the military’s support for him.

Kim Jong-il’s death came after a long illness, dating to 2008, that American intelligence agencies believed involved some form of a stroke. The North has indicated he was 69 years old, but scholars have said he could have been a year older.

Jong Il's death throws negotiations about North Korea's nuclear program into limbo. North Koreans and the West were negotiating food shipments as well, since North Korea can't produce anywhere near the amount of food necessary to support itself. The regime focuses its efforts on its military infrastructure and uses military weapons and technology sales to maintain its power, at the expense of the people who are in dire straits.

South Korean's military was put on high alert considering the possibility of the North Korean military using this as an opportunity to assert itself as well as the possibility that North Koreans may attempt to flee the country en masse.

Jong-il's greatest achievement was not self-sufficiency of food production, but the ability to detonate two crude nuclear devices in underground tests in 2009. While one is considered a fizzle, the two tests taken together show that the North Koreans have demonstrated nuclear weapons capabilities and that has led to further international sanctions and isolated the regime.

While some analysts are wondering whether Jong-il was a master manipulator or a madmad, the answer is that he was both. One can be a manipulator and a madmad at the same time. The one guiding principle for the regime is that maintaining power was critical and absolute. There was no tolerance of dissent and everyone in the country had to claim fealty to Jong-il. Dissenters were treated harshly - disappearing into the North Korean gulag archipelago of labor camps and prisons. North Koreans also get a wildly distorted worldview as the regime tightly controls all media access, limiting telecommunications and Internet connectivity.

So what do we know about Jong-un? That's the trillion dollar question, and the answer isn't much:

Before his death, Kim Jong Il had been grooming his third and youngest son as his successor. Kim Jong Eun studied for a time in Switzerland at a German-speaking high school in Liebefeld, a suburb of the Swiss capital, Bern. Former classmates remember a shy but determined boy obsessed with American basketball and expensive sports shoes. They say he spoke passable German and made some local friends but was monitored closely by staff members s from the North Korean Embassy in Bern.

He vanished in the middle of the school year in 2000, apparently to return to Pyongyang, and had not been seen in public since until he emerged at his father’s heir apparent last year. A campaign of hagiographic propaganda hailed him as the “Dear Young General,” but it is unclear how much support he has within the armed forces or the ruling party, both of which are dominated by far older men. His mother, a former dancer, died in 2004.

UPDATE:
A classic satire of Kim, courtesy of Team America's madcap duo, Matt Stone and Trey Parker:




UPDATE:
For anyone wondering just how bad things are in North Korea, look no further than the satellite imagery showing the utter lack of any nighttime activity in North Korea. There's only a modicum of lighting around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, but not much else.

That's compared to the ribbons of light around Seoul and throughout much of South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and China, where cities are joined together by highways and towns at regular intervals.

RIP: Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens passed away after a battle with cancer. Hitchens was 62.

As an equal opportunity offender, he will be sorely missed for his wit, sarcasm, and incendiary takes on life and events.

RIP: Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011)

Elizabeth Taylor passed away today at the age of 79. She was one of the last links to the glamorous Hollywood of decades long ago and made her reputation in such movies as Cleopatra and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf but her promising career took off after appearing in National Velvet as a 12-year-old in 1944.

From Cleopatra:


Taylor had long been fodder for the tabloids because of her multiple marriages to everyone from Richard Burton (twice) to Conrad Hilton and Eddie Fischer.

She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress. One was for her performance in Butterfield 8 in 1960, and the other was for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in 1966.

A video tribute.

One thing I didn't know about her was that she had converted to Judaism in 1959.

While health issues slowed her in her later years, she became an ardent spokesperson for AIDS research, and counted Rock Hudson among her close friends.

George Steinbrenner In Critical Condition UPDATE: Steinbrenner Dead at 80

Multiple reports are indicating that the owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner was in critical condition after suffering a massive heart attack yesterday. It's been a tough couple of days for the Yankee family with the passing of Bob Sheppard over the weekend and now TMZ.com (apparently corroborated by the AP) is reporting that he actually has died last night.

According to multiple reports, Steinbrenner -- who turned 80-years-old on July 4th -- was rushed to St. Joseph's hospital in Tampa where he was later pronounced dead.

Steinbrenner -- a U.S. Navy veteran -- retired from running the Yankees in 2006 ... leaving his sons Hank and Hal to run the team.

Since Steinbrenner took over the team in 1973, the Yankees locked up 11 pennants and 7 World Series titles.

When Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973 from CBS for $10 million, the team was in the doldrums and hadn't had a championship in years (since 1962). Steinbrenner turned things around, bringing in top talent, including Reggie Jackson. The team won championships in 1977 and 1978, but then settled back into a period of mediocrity fed by overpaying for free agents and chewing through managers as though they were chew toys for a rottweiler.

Steinbrenner demanded wins and championships, and when players or managers couldn't deliver, he fired them.

However, in his later years, he mellowed and allowed his front office staff to make key decisions that enabled a core group of players to develop. You might have heard of them - Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettite, and Jorge Posada. They became the backbone for the team and led the team to championships in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 along with the 2009 championship.

Off the field, Steinbrenner had his share of controversy, but few can argue that he didn't want to see his team succeed.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family.

The Voice of the Yankees Has Passed Away

Bob Sheppard, the voice of Yankee Stadium and the New York Yankees and New York football Giants for decades has passed away. He was 99.



He will be missed.

RIP: Sen. Robert Byrd Passes Away at 92

Robert C. Byrd, the Democratic Senator from West Virginia, died at the age of 92. His stamp on the operation of the US Senate is indelible given that he was the longest serving member in its history. West Virginia will surely miss his presence as one of the state's champions and who made sure that the state received more than its share of federal funds over the years.

Memeorandum has a roundup of reaction from across the political spectrum.

While some reports will deemphasize his formative years including his time as a member of the KKK and his opposition to school integration via busing, the fact that he was in office for so long meant that the state's voters were more than willing to see past those earlier events and reelected him time and again.

West Virginians clearly thought he was doing something right all these years.

Rep. John Murtha Passes Away At 77

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) has died at the age of 77. He was surrounded by family at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, VA.

The 19-term Democrat was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in Congress. He currently leads House Appropriations subcommittee on defense spending. Murtha has been a representative for Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District since 1974.

A former Marine, he became the first Vietnam War combat Veteran elected to the U.S. Congress.

This past Saturday, Murtha became Pennsylvania’s longest serving member of Congress.

Murtha had been dealing with complications from a gallbladder operation for the past couple of weeks. My condolences to his family and friends.

A staunch Democrat, he had been one of Nancy Pelosi's biggest backers and was seen as an enforcer. Murtha also had gone on the record calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq (including calling for a redeployment of troops to Okinawa), all while claiming the Iraq mission was a failure.

His political history includes a run-in with the FBI over Abscam (for which he was named an unindicted coconspirator), and had more recently smeared a group of US Marines claiming that they murdered Iraqi civilians at Haditha. Murtha's claims proved to be inaccurate as the military cleared those Marines of the charges and several of the Marines pursued legal action against him. He also caused a stir when he claimed that his own constituents wouldn't vote for Barack Obama for President since he was black.

UPDATE:
It will be interesting to see how the House Democrat leadership will adjust to this sad news.

The Passing of Sen. Edward Kennedy

Sen. Edward Kennedy passed away last night at the age of 77 from the brain cancer that was diagnosed last year. He was the last surviving member of the Kennedy clan that shaped the political landscape of the 1960s. He outlived his two brothers, John and Robert, each of whom was assassinated. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends:

In nearly 50 years in the Senate, Kennedy, a liberal Democrat, served alongside 10 presidents — his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy among them — compiling an impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, immigration and more.

His only run for the White House ended in defeat in 1980. More than a quarter-century later, he handed then-Sen. Barack Obama an endorsement at a critical point in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, explicitly likening the young contender to President Kennedy.

To the American public, Kennedy was best known as the last surviving son of America's most glamorous political family, father figure and, memorably, eulogist of an Irish-American clan plagued again and again by tragedy.

Kennedy's death triggered an outpouring of superlatives, from Democrats and Republicans as well as foreign leaders.

"An important chapter in our history has come to an end. Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States senator of our time," Obama said in a written statement.

"For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts," said Obama, vacationing at Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast.

Kennedy's family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday.

"We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever," the statement said. "We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all."

Reactions to his death were filled with praise and respect from both sides of the aisle for his tenacity and dedication to his causes.

Democrats have already said that they would press ahead with the health care reform, which was one of the issues near and dear to Kennedy as his lasting legacy. It also raises questions in Massachusetts about who will replace him.

In fact, Sen. Kennedy had raised this issue earlier in the week, in what was perhaps a harbinger of things to come. He urged a quick filling of the seat, realizing that the Democrats needed the seat in order to protect against a filibuster that could thwart passage of the health care bill and other items on the Democrats agenda.

However, it wasn't just a quick filling of his seat he was concerned about. He was worried that the GOP might take the seat in the special election held, and therefore wanted to change the law back to what it was before GOPer Mitt Romney became governor; he wanted the governor to select his replacement. The law was changed when Romney became governor so that Democrats could have a better chance of holding on to the seat. Now that a Democrat is the governor, the Democrats figure they're going to have a better chance of holding the seat than if they leave it up to the public to decide.

UPDATE:
Jammie finds the New York Times writing about the rank hypocrisy that the Democrats face if they attempt to switch the law back in order to give them the ability to push ahead with their agenda when they were behind the effort to push for special elections in just this kind of circumstance. Well, the Times didn't point out the rank hypocrisy; only that they need to get this done to move ahead on Obamacare.

It definitely looks like Democrats are going to try and capitalize on his death to attempt to speed passage of Obamacare (H.R. 3200).

On a more personal level, my only connection to the Senator is that he cited one of my law review articles in a paper on hate speech.

I have very few things in common with Kennedy when it comes to matters of politics, but one cannot deny the impact he and his family have had on US politics. Few people can stay on the political stage as long as he has.

UPDATE:
Don Surber has more to say about Kennedy's passing, and is from where I grabbed the photo of the Kennedy brothers. Memeorandum has much more blog reaction to Kennedy's death.

Walter Cronkite Passes Away At 92

Walter Cronkite passed away at the age of 92 yesterday. He had been reported to be in ill health for some time. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and colleagues at CBS, where he became a television icon leading the CBS Evening News for decades until his unceremonious ouster in favor of Dan Rather.

Cronkite was a hugely influential news reader, and was considered the most trustworthy voice. Love him or hate him, his voice was just right for reading the news nightly. At a time when your news choices were newspapers or the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC), Cronkite ruled the day.

Cronkite's best moments came at times of national tragedy and national triumph. That includes the assassination of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon (the 40th anniversary of which is just two days from now).





His statements on Vietnam will be endlessly critiqued as to whether he lost Vietnam for the US as he led more people to conclude that the US could not win.

But the reason that so many people think that is the case is precisely why he was such an imposing and towering figure in journalism; he was seen as the trustworthy figure and took his opinions and views as informed and reliable.

That kind of impact by a news reader will never be seen again.

Jacksonian Economics

Today, a memorial will be held in Los Angeles at the Staples Center in honor of the recently deceased Michael Jackson. It will be a spectacle.

I don't question the need for a memorial. His passing touched millions of his fans and they would like the opportunity to have a public gathering to celebrate his life.

The problem isn't the memorial per se, but the cost.

Jackson's estate can't exactly afford this, and neither can Los Angeles. Overtime costs for policing the event is expected to run into the millions. AEG, the music promoter is running the memorial (they had planned on running the 50-date concert tour later this summer).

In that respect, Jackson's economic woes mirror that of the state of California. Jackson's fame brought massive fortune his way. He was able to buy anything and everything to his heart's content, and even then it wasn't enough. He bought the Neverland Ranch and stocked it with a menagerie of animals to allow him the childhood he never had since he was in show business from such an early age.

No one ever told him no.

No one ever told him that spending to such excess might come back to haunt him as he might suffer economic setbacks.

Well, there were setbacks, and the sex scandals and albums that didn't match earlier expectations meant that Jackson had to leverage assets to maintain his lifestyle.

It was unsustainable. The move to hold a 50 concert run in London was hoped to raise capital to help unsaddle Jackson's business ventures of their massive debt. That didn't happen as Jackson died on the eve of starting the concert run.

His estate will have to defend such claims, including the handling of the Beatles collection, which is co-owned by Sony.

If all of that sounds familiar, consider that this too is the problem with profligate spending by California and all too many other states around the nation.

States spent lavishly when times were flush, made bad business decisions, and hoped that taxpayers would bail them out via tax rate hikes that would increase revenues.

That didn't come to pass as the recession sapped consumer spending and tax revenues dropped precipitously. California faces a huge budget deficit and no solution in sight.

California doesn't have Jackson's rabid fan base that is willing to turn out for his memorial. California's fiscal demise will occur with a whimper.

California can't get banks to sign off on its IOUs, and its fiscal situation continues sliding into insolvency.

Pitchman Billy Mays Passed Away

You've seen his visage on countless infomercials, and has been starring of late on a Discovery television show called Pitchmen, in which he and another infomercial king Anthony Sullivan, test out items that could become the next big infomercial hit.

Billy Mays has apparently died at his home in Tampa, Florida.

Television pitchman Billy Mays — who built his fame by appearing on commercials and infomercials promoting household products and gadgets — died Sunday, FOX News confirms.

Mays was found unresponsive by his wife inside his Tampa, Fla., home at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Tampa Police Department.

Police said there were no signs of forced entry to May's residence and foul play is not suspected. Authorities said an autopsy should be complete by Monday afternoon.

Mays, 50, was on board a US Airways flight that blew out its front tires as it landed at a Tampa airport on Saturday, MyFOXTampa.com reported.

Several of the passengers on board suffered bumps and bruises, and it is possible that Mays could have hit his head and suffered a traumatic brain injury without realizing it. The autopsy may shed light on what caused his death.

Filipino Inmates Pay Tribute to Michael Jackson

You have to see this to believe it. Filipino prison inmate had taken to staging mass dance routines as part of their daily workouts and it became a YouTube sensation. Their biggest hit? Michael Jackson's Thriller.

With Jackson's death, they've staged a tribute to Jackson:



The full story is here.

Tourists flocked to the prison in Cebu, south of Manila, Saturday for an elaborate tribute performed by hundreds of inmates in orange prison garb who became an Internet sensation in 2007 for their jailhouse "Thriller" performance.

The original performance - featuring 1,500 inmates in matching prison uniforms doing Jackson's famous 1982 routine - has been viewed more than 24 million times on YouTube.

"Even as a kid, he was already my idol," said Crisanto Nieri, 38, who danced Jackson's part in 'Thriller' in the performance and is serving seven years on drug charges.

The original dance began as a exercise routine for the jail birds.

The inmates dedicated the tribute performance to Jackson's family.

A Moment of Perspective

Ahmadinejad and his loyal mullahs are busy cracking down against the opposition, and the world's focus is not on the brutality of the regime, but instead on the death of Michael Jackson.

In fact, Jackson's death may have accomplished something that even Iran's Ahmadinejad could have only dreamed of - it reduced Twitter to a trickle.

Twitter crashed as users saw multiple "fail whales" -- the illustrations the site uses as error messages -- user FoieGrasie posting, "Irony: The protesters in Iran using twitter as com are unable to get online because of all the posts of 'Michael Jackson RIP.' Well done." The site's status blog said that Twitter had had to temporarily disable its search results, saved searches and trend topics.

Outstanding! A music legend dies, and it nearly takes down one of the key communications efforts by the opposition to the Islamofascists in Tehran because everyone was rushing to say RIP to Michael Jackson. If only so many people cared for the millions at risk of subjugation in Iran today.

Instead, the media is devoting nearly all of the above the fold coverage to Jackson's death. It's a frakking circus, but I guess the public loves a circus.

They're getting one.

Keep in mind what else should otherwise be above the fold for news coverage because of its importance going forward. Jackson's death happened just as the House is set to vote on the cap and trade tax that will sap the US economy for years to come, and is preparing a health makeover that will undermine the delivery of health care for generations to come. After all, if the government can't even deliver on existing promises of health care to US veterans, why should anyone else think that they'll deliver quality care to everyone else?

The media thinks that Jackson's death will sell papers and move magazines off moribund store shelves, and they're probably right. Of course, the same media which claims that they're supposed to be printing all the news that fits is underplaying the important votes set to take place in Congress that will hike the costs of goods and services for years to come via the cap and trade tax hike.

Deaths of Legends

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett both passed away today. One was a shock. One was expected.

Both died far too soon.

Farrah Fawcett had been suffering from anal cancer and had been in declining health for some time.



Michael Jackson's death comes as a tremendous surprise. He was rushed to UCLA Medical Center in cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead a short time later. No word as to the cause of death.

Jackson's musical career was the stuff of legend. His album Thriller was the best selling movie of all time. The song itself and the video are groundbreaking.

Both will be missed.

UPDATE:
This report suggests that Jackson may have died following the injection of Demerol.

An Emergency Room source at UCLA hospital said Jackson aides told medics he had collapsed after an injection of potent Demerol — similar to morphine.

A Jacko source said: “Shortly after taking the Demerol he started to experience slow shallow breathing.

“His breathing gradually got slower and slower until it stopped.

“His staff started mouth-to-mouth and an ambulance was called which got there in eight minutes “Butfound he was in full respiratory arrest, no breathing and no pulse. They started full CPR and rushed him to hospital.

“When he arrived they started resuscitation, giving him heart shocks and inserted a breathing tube and other supportive measures to try and save his life.

David Carradine Found Dead In Bangkok Hotel Room

David Carradine, who was the kung-fu master in so many of the martial arts movies of my youth, and who was the sinister Bill in the Kill Bill movies, was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room. This particular report says he was found hanging inside his hotel room and may have committed suicide. TMZ says that he died of natural causes.

The man had a voice that projected in turns a serenity and an unearthly danger, depending on the situation. He will be missed.

UPDATE:
Carradine in Kill Bill, Vol. 2:



My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.