Kung Fu Killer: David Carradine Back to His Old Tricks on Spike TV

Often, actors are concerned with being typecast. Try as they might, Matthew Perry will always be Chandler; Jason Alexander, George Costanza; Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker. But David Carradine proves that they shouldn’t worry. The aging actor has taken one role in the Kung Fu TV series and made a career of it.

Nor does he seem to have any qualms about his typecasting. Why else take the central role of Spike TV’s latest original movie, Kung Fu Killer? Carradine plays White Lotus a monk trained to be a kung fu master and spiritual leader in pre-communist China circa the 1920s. Ruthless Shanghainese gangsters kill his clan, so he travels to the colonial city and exacts revenge. Along the way he meets the beautiful lounge singer Jane (Darryl Hannah). Adventure, lots of kicking, punching and pop metaphysical ruminations ensue. A real stretch for Carradine. He must’ve put hours into research for this one. Oh well, if something works, don’t fix it. Previous Spike “Guy Movies” average an audience of 1.5 million viewer. Kung Fu Killer airs August 17th and 18th, 10pm -12am ET/PT on Spike in HD.