Iconic actor David Carradine, 72, best known for his work in the Kung-Fu television series and the Kill Bill movies, was found dead in his Thailand hotel room earlier today.

A maid reportedly discovered the actor’s naked body hanging inside his hotel room closet. He was in the city of Bangkok for the filming of the movie Stretch.

This is an end that I never imagined for one of my favorite actors and martial artists.

David was fairly successful in his acting career – with hundreds of film, television and stage performances to his credit. He is also famous for various Tai Chi instructional videos, enabling the ancient Chinese martial art to reach millions of people, from all walks of life.

I was very young then, but when Kung-Fu: The Legend Continues first aired on television, I followed the series religiously because of him. There was something irresistible about his calm aura and quiet yet compelling voice. He also performed his martial arts sequences with grace, ease, and confidence in his abilities.

When I heard that David was selected to play Bill in lieu of Warren Beatty in Quentin Tarantino’s action-packed, blood-drenched revenge feature Kill Bill, I was so happy that the former was given another shot at mainstream movies in his later life.

David’s mysterious death was most unexpected. Police and investigators believe this to be suicide, but his manager thinks otherwise.

The actor’s personal life was arguably more volatile than one would expect from his serene, charismatic onscreen persona. He had a history of alcohol and drug use, and had time and again entertained thoughts of taking his own life. He was married and divorced multiple times.

Rest in peace, David. You are a legend who will continue to live on the screen and in your fan’s hearts.

Nick Joaquin, Philippine National Artist for Literature, passed away last April 29th, at 7:00 AM, in his San Juan, Metro Manila home. He was a week shy of his 87th birthday, which will be taking place on 4 May 2004.

Yahoo! News Asia provides a very good news feature as tribute to this brilliant man, whose rich imagination and poetic soul reached beyond print to capture the numerous facets of the human spirit.

Among his most notable works are the short stories Summer Solstice, Guardia de Honor (Honor Guard) and, my personal favorite, the savagely bittersweet May Day Eve. He also wrote the local classic novel, The Woman Who Had Two Navels.

His play A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino: An Elegy in Three Scenes was a big hit when it was first staged in 1955. This work was later made into a movie. In the years that followed, Portrait has been staged time and time again by various professional and amateur theatre groups, testimony to its timeless grandeur.

More recently, his play Tatarin, a mystical and sexually charged battle between woman and man, was likewise transposed into film form, topbilled by big silver screen names such as Dina Bonnevie and Edu Manzano.

Indeed, Nick Joaquin was more than just a novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist in his time. He was a creator of sharp, witty reflections of the Filipino essence.

The Ramon Magsaysay Foundation called him “the greatest Filipino writer of his generation” who produced “a body of work unmatched in richness and range by his contemporaries.”

According to the faithful logs of Paolo Manalo, Mang Nick was cremated at La Funeraria Paz Araneta on the night of his passing.

His wake began at 1:00 PM last Friday, April 30th, at the Sanctuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati City. Necrological rites were held this morning at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, with the interment immediately following, at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (translated as “Graveyard of Heroes”).

Rest in peace, Mang Nick.

That they were at peace at last, the two of them and her tired body at rest; her broken body set free at last from the brutal pranks of the earth–from a trap of a May night; from the snare of summer; from the terrible silver nets of the moon.

~Nick Joaquin (4 May 1917-29 April 2004), May Day Eve

The news spread through various forms of Philippine media very slowly.

I heard over the television, then the radio, that teen idol Rico Yan, whose latest movie Got to Believe became a local hit, died while on holiday at the Dos Palmas Beach Resort in Palawan island.

Word has it that he succumbed to a severe asthma attack. He was admitted to the Palawan Adventist Hospital, but I suppose the doctors there could not save him.

There is currently a news blackout on this. No formal statements as to the cause of death have been released yet.

However, it is being said that when Rico’s best friend and movie buddy Dominic Ochoa tried to wake him up at 9:00 A.M. today, his body was already cold. Clarifications on this will be made as more news trickles into the media.

I hope that wherever Rico is now, he is at peace.

Philippine show business is never peaceful, when you think about it.