As mystery still surrounds the circumstances of David Carradine's death in a hotel room in Thailand last week, hundreds gathered to honour the American actor during a funeral service in Los Angeles yesterday.

Family, famous friends and former co-stars attended the service to remember the 72-year-old star of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films and the 1970s television series Kung Fu.

More than 400 people gathered at the hillside cemetery in Los Angeles for the two-hour funeral which was held under gloomy clouds which then parted to reveal a picturesque sunset as they said goodbye to the actor.

Among the hundreds of guests were numerous actors, including his Kill Bill co-stars Michael Madsen, Lucy Liu and Daryl Hannah, British actress Jane Seymour, Tom Selleck, James Cromwell and comedian Rob Schneider who arrived clutching a basket of flowers.

Carradine's family stayed out of sight. His brother, Keith Carradine, briefly appeared outside before the service and greeted some people before heading back inside. His burial was private.

The actor's body was found hanging in a Bangkok hotel room on June 4. Thai authorities continue to investigate his death which was initially ruled as suicide. It has also been suggested that Carradine’s death may have been a result of an attempt at sexual auto-asphyxiation.

However a statement released on Thursday by a private pathologist who had been hired by his family said suicide had been ruled out as a cause of death. The actor had been in Thailand to shoot the movie Stretch.

Carradine is the son of Hollywood star and character actor John Carradine and came from a respected Hollywood family. He is best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin monk travelling through the American West in the late 1800s, on three seasons of the 1970s hit show Kung Fu. He later went on to star in the cult flick Death Race 2000 and in Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg in 1977, but by the 1980s his career arc had moved to lower-budget fare.

However he welcomed resurgence in his career when he starred as titular character in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 Kill Bill action films. Carradine’s role as Bill earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor for his role in Kill Bill — Vol. 2, his fourth nomination in over three decades.

He continued to foster interests in Asian herbs, exercise and philosophy, and made instructional videos on tai chi and other martial arts.

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