Film star David Carradine, star of cult TV series Kung Fu and later Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill series, died today in Thailand.

Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found by a hotel maid sitting in a wardrobe with a rope around his neck and genitals on Thursday morning.

The local Bangkok newspaper, The Nation, cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was believed to have committed suicide and had hanged himself with a curtain cord in his suite at the Park Nai Lert Hotel.

The US star was in Thailand filming his latest film Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder. Binder described the news as "shocking and sad", adding: "He was full of life, always wanting to work... a great person."

Carradine was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu, which spawned sequels in the 1980s and 1990s. The series became cult viewing. Each episode saw the slow to anger Carradine arrive in a new town only to be – reluctantly – goaded into violence by ignorant and frequently racist hillbillies.

Carradine was also known for his roles in Martin Scorcese's Boxcar Bertha (1972) and as Bill in Quentin Tarantino''s Kill Bill (Vols. 1 & 2 (2003, 2004, respectively).

More recently, he portrayed Tempus, a powerful demon with the ability to manipulate time, on the hit television series Charmed.

On December 26, 2004, he married his wife Annie, at the seaside Malibu home of his friend Michael Madsen.