Biography

Early life

Carradine was born in San Mateo, California, the son of actress and artist Sonia Sorel (née Henius) and actor John Carradine. His paternal half-brothers are the late David Carradine and Bruce Carradine, his maternal half-brother is Michael Bowen, and his full brothers are Christopher Carradine and Robert Carradine.

Career

David, Robert and Keith Carradine appeared together as the Younger brothers in Walter Hill's 1980 film The Long Riders, with Keith playing Jim Younger. Carradine appeared again for Hill in 1981's Southern Comfort.

Carradine's first notable film appearance was in director Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller in 1971. He also portrayed the character Kwai Chang Caine as a teenager in the 1972 television series Kung Fu (the adult Caine was portrayed by his half brother, David). He went on to play one of the principal characters, a callow, womanizing folk singer, in Altman's critically acclaimed 1975 movie Nashville and his song from that movie, "I'm Easy", was a popular music hit in 1976. Carradine won an Oscar for Best Original Song for writing the tune.

In 1977 Carradine starred opposite Harvey Keitel in Ridley Scott's The Duellists. He has worked several times in the offbeat films of Altman's protégé Alan Rudolph, playing a disarmingly candid madman in Choose Me (1984), an incompetent petty criminal in Trouble in Mind (1985) and an American artist in 1930s Paris in The Moderns (1988). He also had a cameo role as Will Rogers in Rudolph's 1994 film about Dorothy Parker, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. Carradine co-starred with Daryl Hannah as homicidal sociopath John Netherwood in the 1995 thriller The Tie That Binds.

Other works include Emperor of the North Pole (1973), Pretty Baby (1978), Chiefs, a television miniseries in 1983, and My Father My Son, a television movie in 1988. In 1984 he appeared in the video for Madonna's single Material Girl. In the early 1990s he played the lead role in the Tony Award winning musical, the "Will Rogers Follies". He was nominated for Broadway's 1991 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for this role.

More recently Carradine starred in the ABC sitcom Complete Savages, and played Wild Bill Hickok in the HBO series Deadwood. He has also appeared as a host of the factual Wild West Tech show on the History Channel.

In the 2005 miniseries Into the West, produced by Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks, Carradine played Richard Henry Pratt. He guest starred on Dexter (TV series) as FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy during the 2007-2008 season.

Carradine's stage career is distinguished by Tony-nominated performance as the title character in The Will Rogers Follies in 1991 (for which he also received a Drama Desk nomination). He won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Foxfire with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, and appeared as Lawrence in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Imperial Theater. He was also in the cast of the original Broadway production of Hair in 1972, appearing in the roles of Woof and Claude. In 2008, he appeared as Dr. Farquhar Off-Broadway in Mindgame, a thriller by Antony Horowitz, directed by Ken Russell, who made his New York directorial debut with the production.