Endless Highway provides a raucous ride down the road that has been David Carradine's life. The son of a world-renowned Shakespearean actor, Carradine's early years were spent being shuttled from mother to estranged father to relative to boarding school to reformatory. Spontaneity, quick-wittedness, and ingenuousness were his guideposts in life, and he quickly learned that creativity was survival. The fifties found him in San Francisco among the original members of the Beat Generation, and the path through the drug flooded sixties and seventies ultimately led him to "Kung Fu", the show that helped launch an Eastern spiritual philosophy into Western culture. Writing with warmth, humor, and tremendous insight, Carradine provides an honest and in-depth look at his life. Had Holden Caulfield grown up, met Hunter S. Thompson, gone on the road with Jack Kerouac, and finally studied with Master Po -- well, perhaps that would embrace the spirit of Carradine's own writing style. He has been, in his own words, fraud, genius, holy man, movie star, martyr, monster, fool, hero, whore, neurotic, poet, burnout, beauty, beast -- but always a legend.
From Booklist
Everyone's time eventually comes--twice, if you hang around long enough, which might explain the career of David Carradine, who brought martial-arts choreography and mystically tinged philosophy to prime-time TV in Kung-Fu , then, in a recent return to series TV, did it again. His autobiography is exhaustive and intensely personal. It deals with the obvious subjects in simple, sometimes lyrical language that makes Carradine sound like a man at home with himself. Being exhaustive, it also covers the other notables who have peopled his life. Carradine was a Hollywood kid, a son of veteran character actor John Carradine, and he endured the strange childhood, full of child-custodial ping-pong and a parade of parental partners, that is the stuff of Hollywood lore. He takes the long view of things, however, rather than the more common vindictive approach. Excellent as a resource on, besides its author-subject, old Hollywood (truly another world), the 1960s, Barbara Hershey, and dozens of other pop-culture topics, this is 600-plus pages of good reading. Mike Tribby --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
David is the Carradine brother who played Woody Guthrie in the movies, not to be confused with another one, Keith, who played Will Rogers on Broadway. Their father was character actor John Carradine, and David Carradine says they were once considered princes of Hollywood. His autobiography is breezy and anecdotal and so good-natured?even when blaming everyone else for all its author's failures?that only toward the end does it come through as the dreary catalogue of human disaster it actually is. Carradine tried to kill himself when he was five. Later, his drunken mother, confusing him with his long-departed father, tried to seduce him. Schooling consisted of one expulsion after another. The high point of his acting career came in the early 1970s with Kung Fu, a popular TV series. As recorded here, the rest of his adult life is remembered in terms of LSD, pot, peyote, cocaine, alcohol, unsuccessful films, cars, horses, wives and wandering children. And always there are blithely belabored excuses for everything. The book ends with a long journal of the first seven months of 1995, with Carradine attending A.A. meetings and shooting a new Kung Fu series on the cheap in Canada. Photos. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Admirers of the popular Kung Fu television series may be disappointed that Carradine, who starred as the introspective, ascetic Kwai Chang Caine, reveals himself in this autobiography as a fairly stereotypical, thrice-married Hollywood actor fond of fast cars, women, drugs, and tequila. While a narrative along these lines has some entertainment potential, Carradine's unexciting prose is rather trite and at times simply crass, making the reader wish he had collaborated with a professional writer to edit the overlong text and more eloquently express his innermost feelings. Most interesting is Carradine's recollections of his famous father, John Carradine, whose friend John Barrymore made a lasting impression on David and influenced his acting style. His poignant description of his father's death in Milan is one of the few moments when genuinely sensitive emotion seems to come across. Considerably more engrossing is David's book Spirit of Shaolin (LJ 12/91), in which he discusses the making of Kung Fu and his involvement with Eastern philosophy and martial arts. Recommended only for comprehensive film/television collections.?Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
This autobiography of the son of a famous Shakespeare actor traces not only actor Carradine's rise to a different kind of acting career; but his involvement with the Shaolin philosophy and beliefs which were the hallmark of his 'Kung Fu' TV series. Readers with a special interest in Carradine and his beliefs will find this an involving account of Carradine's achievements and different personal and spiritual aspects. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Description:
Endless Highway provides a raucous ride down the road that has been David Carradine's life. The son of a world-renowned Shakespearean actor, Carradine's early years were spent being shuttled from mother to estranged father to relative to boarding school to reformatory. Spontaneity, quick-wittedness, and ingenuousness were his guideposts in life, and he quickly learned that creativity was survival. The fifties found him in San Francisco among the original members of the Beat Generation, and the path through the drug flooded sixties and seventies ultimately led him to "Kung Fu", the show that helped launch an Eastern spiritual philosophy into Western culture. Writing with warmth, humor, and tremendous insight, Carradine provides an honest and in-depth look at his life. Had Holden Caulfield grown up, met Hunter S. Thompson, gone on the road with Jack Kerouac, and finally studied with Master Po -- well, perhaps that would embrace the spirit of Carradine's own writing style. He has been, in his own words, fraud, genius, holy man, movie star, martyr, monster, fool, hero, whore, neurotic, poet, burnout, beauty, beast -- but always a legend.
From Booklist
Everyone's time eventually comes--twice, if you hang around long enough, which might explain the career of David Carradine, who brought martial-arts choreography and mystically tinged philosophy to prime-time TV in Kung-Fu , then, in a recent return to series TV, did it again. His autobiography is exhaustive and intensely personal. It deals with the obvious subjects in simple, sometimes lyrical language that makes Carradine sound like a man at home with himself. Being exhaustive, it also covers the other notables who have peopled his life. Carradine was a Hollywood kid, a son of veteran character actor John Carradine, and he endured the strange childhood, full of child-custodial ping-pong and a parade of parental partners, that is the stuff of Hollywood lore. He takes the long view of things, however, rather than the more common vindictive approach. Excellent as a resource on, besides its author-subject, old Hollywood (truly another world), the 1960s, Barbara Hershey, and dozens of other pop-culture topics, this is 600-plus pages of good reading. Mike Tribby --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
David is the Carradine brother who played Woody Guthrie in the movies, not to be confused with another one, Keith, who played Will Rogers on Broadway. Their father was character actor John Carradine, and David Carradine says they were once considered princes of Hollywood. His autobiography is breezy and anecdotal and so good-natured?even when blaming everyone else for all its author's failures?that only toward the end does it come through as the dreary catalogue of human disaster it actually is. Carradine tried to kill himself when he was five. Later, his drunken mother, confusing him with his long-departed father, tried to seduce him. Schooling consisted of one expulsion after another. The high point of his acting career came in the early 1970s with Kung Fu, a popular TV series. As recorded here, the rest of his adult life is remembered in terms of LSD, pot, peyote, cocaine, alcohol, unsuccessful films, cars, horses, wives and wandering children. And always there are blithely belabored excuses for everything. The book ends with a long journal of the first seven months of 1995, with Carradine attending A.A. meetings and shooting a new Kung Fu series on the cheap in Canada. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Admirers of the popular Kung Fu television series may be disappointed that Carradine, who starred as the introspective, ascetic Kwai Chang Caine, reveals himself in this autobiography as a fairly stereotypical, thrice-married Hollywood actor fond of fast cars, women, drugs, and tequila. While a narrative along these lines has some entertainment potential, Carradine's unexciting prose is rather trite and at times simply crass, making the reader wish he had collaborated with a professional writer to edit the overlong text and more eloquently express his innermost feelings. Most interesting is Carradine's recollections of his famous father, John Carradine, whose friend John Barrymore made a lasting impression on David and influenced his acting style. His poignant description of his father's death in Milan is one of the few moments when genuinely sensitive emotion seems to come across. Considerably more engrossing is David's book Spirit of Shaolin (LJ 12/91), in which he discusses the making of Kung Fu and his involvement with Eastern philosophy and martial arts. Recommended only for comprehensive film/television collections.?Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
This autobiography of the son of a famous Shakespeare actor traces not only actor Carradine's rise to a different kind of acting career; but his involvement with the Shaolin philosophy and beliefs which were the hallmark of his 'Kung Fu' TV series. Readers with a special interest in Carradine and his beliefs will find this an involving account of Carradine's achievements and different personal and spiritual aspects. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.