Did David Carradine pull a Michael Hutchence? The mere mention of Michael Hutchence makes me wince since he was one of the first men I ever fell in love with (a girl can dream) and his death left me devastated. Like the sexy INXS singer, whose mysterious 1997 death in a Sydney hotel was believed to have been related to a sexual fetish gone wrong, police in Thailand are focusing on the possibility that David Carradine may have accidentally died from suffocation or heart failure while engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation. Autoerotic asphyxiation is when a person intentionally cuts off oxygen to the brain for the purpose of sexual arousal. A representative for the Bangkok Swissotel’s Nai Lert Park hotel said that a maid found the 72-year-old actor’s naked body hanging in a closet in his luxury suite. Police said the 72-year-old actor hanged himself using cords from curtains in the room. Now, investigators quoted in the Thai news are revealing that there was also a rope tied around his genitals. “‘There was a rope tied around his neck and another rope tied to his genitals, and the two ropes were tied together and they hung in the closet, ‘ Police Lt. Gen. Worapong Chewprecha told reporters.”It is unclear whether he committed suicide or not, or he died of suffocation or heart failure.” A coroner completed an autopsy earlier today, but authorities say the results will not be released for at least three weeks.

Officials initially announced the actor apparently committed suicide, but that theory was dismissed by Carradine’s reps and shocked members of his family. Eyewitnesses who saw him the night he died said Carradine seemed to be in a “good mood,” often smiling while drinking at the lobby bar Wednesday night and chatting up various staff members before retiring to his room sometime around 9 p.m. Carradine was a no-show at a crew dinner later that night and detectives say his room key card record shows he never left his suite. While there’s also no indication anyone else entered the thespian’s room, police have yet to officially rule out foul play.

David Carradine’s death has sparked a number of tributes across Hollywood as stars and friends insisted the actor was full of life and didn’t appear suicidal. Quentin Tarantino, Michael Madsen and Rob Schneider all told talk show host Larry King there was no way the actor would have killed himself. ‘I am still in a state shock. He was a dream to direct he was a fantastic actor, a great character actor and really one of Hollywood’s great mad geniuses,’ said Tarantino, who directed Carradine in Kill Bill. ‘The thing I cannot get my head around is that there could have been a period of David’s long life when he might have been suicidal, but this was not the time.’ Madsen, who played an assassin in Kill Bill and hosted Carradine’s wedding in 2004, said that his widow was ‘very confused’ by her late husband’s death. ‘I talked to Annie about that and she said the most important thing she wanted people to know was that David was not suicidal and he was not depressed. ’He was not about to do something like that, he had a job and he was working.’

Carradine with wife Annie, right, and daughter

Carradine, whose career had recently undergone a renaissance after he appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s bloody two-part martial arts film saga Kill Bill, was in Thailand shooting his latest film, Stretch. Carradine got his big break in Kung Fu as Kwai Chang Caine, nicknamed Grasshopper, the soft-spoken monk and martial arts expert who travelled through America’s Old West spreading wisdom and battling bad guys. Carradine’s portrayal of Caine earned him a nomination for an Emmy.

He was married five times and had two daughters from previous marriages. His fifth wife was Annie Bierman, whom he married in 2004.