David Carradine:
“There are no failures in Hollywood, there are only people who gave up too soon.”
(arranged by Carmichael Phillips)
(David Carradine)
“There are no failures in Hollywood, there are only people who gave up too soon.”
The late David Carradine was a Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominated actor and martial artist, who appeared in over 100 films over a career that spanned more than six decades. Carradine was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, the peace-loving Shaolin monk on the 1970’s television series, Kung Fu.
Carradine once pointed out the reason why a successful acting career often proves elusive for many actors.
“The problem is not that acting is hard. The problem is that there are over 100,000 members of SAG, and only hundreds of jobs.”
Work is sporadic for most actors because the level of competition, especially for major markets, is extremely high. Hundreds of actors competing for each role creates winners and losers, or rather a handful of winners and many thousands of losers.
Those who lose out on an acting role must muster up the patience and perseverance to look for, and go after, the next available job opportunity.
“The problem is that there are over 100,000 members of SAG, and only hundreds of jobs.”
But Carradine also emphasized the importance of not quitting, despite these hardships.
“There was one guy who once told me, there are no failures in Hollywood, there are only people who gave up too soon.”
Carradine’s most recent notoriety came for his role as Bill, in the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Volume 2, which earned him a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Carradine passed away on June 3, 2009, due to a fatal autoerotic asphyxiation accident. He was 72.
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