The body of American actor David Carradine, best known for the 2003 movie 'Kill Bill' and 1970s TV series "Kung Fu," was found in a hotel room closet with a rope tied to his neck and genitals.

The US star was in Thailand filming his latest film, Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder.

An autopsy into the death has failed to establish whether he killed himself or died accidentally from suffocation or heart failure during an auto-erotic sex game. Coroners at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn hospital added that they were waiting for the results of a toxicology screen.

"We are now running tests and then we will decide the cause of death," the hospital's chief coroner, Nantana Sirisap said.

Aurelio Giraudo, the hotel's general manager, said Carradine checked into the hotel May 31 and he last saw him June 3. He said Carradine chatted with staff and even played piano a few nights in the lobby as well as flute which the "guests really enjoyed."

"I was a fan. I had a very nice talk with him when he checked in," Giraudo told The Associated Press. "He was very much a person full of life. I mentioned to him that I had seen (the movie) "Crank" with my family and that was the last smile he gave me."

While his film career saw him working with directors including Martin Scorsese and Ingmar Bergman, the cult actor was considered something of a B-movie legend. In 2003, after years in the straight-to-video market, Carradine found a new audience thanks to his role in the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill.

He was most recently seen on the big screen as a Chinese mobster in Crank: High Voltage.

Sources: BBC, Telegraph