In 2002, Quentin Tarantino contacted David Carradine and asked him to be in his new film, “Kill Bill.” The director had been working on the film for a year, and had been wooing Warren Beatty for the title role. But close to the start of filming, the director fell out of love with his star, who he’d encouraged to model after Carradine in his ‘Kung Fu’ movies. Beatty made the mistake of suggesting that Tarantino ask Carradine to do the part. So he did. Carradine wrote an account of his experience on 'Kill Bill,' from which this is excerpted. The actor died in Thailand at age 72 in June 2009.

• June 2009 (1)