David Carradine's Manager Says He Died of "Foul Play"

David Carradine's manager says there is no way the actor, found dead in Thailand, would have committed suicide — and that he believes his death was "foul play."
"He was great," said Chuck Binder, the star's manager of six years. "He was doing a bunch of films, he was coming back to do more films, it was all great. He'd just bought a brand-new car. I think he was in a really great place. He was in a really happy marriage. And so none of it makes sense.
"This is foul play," he said.
As for what kind of foul play, Binder declined to speculate. Carradine, 72, was found naked in a Bangkok hotel with a rope around his neck, The Washington Post reported.
The rope led to initial speculation that he committed suicide. But Thai police said Friday they are looking into the possibility that he died in a sex game gone wrong, because he also had cords around his genitals. (See MSNBC's examination of the practice of auto-erotic asphixiation.)
Police say they are checking DNA found on the cords but have found no signs of struggle, which could suggest Carradine either consented to be restrained or tied himself up.
"It is unclear whether he committed suicide or not or he died of suffocation or heart failure," Lt. Gen. Worapong Chewprecha of the Royal Thai Police told reporters.
Autopsy results were not expected before Saturday at earliest.
The Smoking Gun has tracked down court papers from Carradine's divorce from wife Marina Anderson, in which Anderson specifically cites her husband's "deviant sexual behavior which was potentially deadly."

Binder joins Carradine's famous family and a slew of friends, including his Kill Bill co-star Michael Madsen, in saying the actor was happy and would not have killed himself.
One sign that Carradine's career was still vibrant: He had recently filmed an episode of Fox's new medical show, The Mental. It is scheduled to air Tuesday.