BANGKOK - US actor David Carradine was found dead, naked and hanging from a rope in the closet of his luxury Bangkok hotel room on Thursday, Thai police said. He was 72.

Police said they were alerted to the death of the actor, who won fame as the wandering monk in the 'Kung Fu' television series, on Thursday morning.

'He was found hanging by a rope in the room's closet,' Lieutenant Colonel Pirom Jantrapirom of the Lumpini police station in Bangkok told reporters.

Carradine's body was naked when it was found and there were no signs of other people in the room, Mr Jantrapirom said. The body has been sent to a hospital for an autopsy.

Lori Binder, a representative for Carradine's Los Angeles-based talent manager, said the actor was in Thailand to shoot a film called 'Stretch.' She declined to give further details of his death while it was under investigation.

A spokesman for the US Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the actor. He says Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.

Carradine, from a family of performers and the eldest son of well-known character actor John Carradine, enjoyed a long career on Broadway, US television and in movies such as director Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill: Vol 1' and 'Kill Bill: Vol 2.'

But it was the role of Kwai Chang Caine, the wandering monk in 'Kung Fu,' that earned the actor his greatest fame.

The series aired on US television starting in 1972 and immediately won a large base of fans of the half-Asian martial arts expert and student of life as he traveled through Americas Old West.

Overall, Carradine's credits include more than 200 roles in movies, TV, video and DVD spanning nearly five decades. -- REUTERS, AP