Born March 24, 1954 in Los Angeles, he spent a good amount of his early life as a musician before being bit by the family bug. Carradine made his acting debut at age 16 as understudy to brother Keith in a Florida production of "Tobacco Road" starring their famous father. His first notable impression on film was as “the boy with gun” who shoots David Carradine in Martin Scorsese's "Mean Streets" (1973), followed three years later with his first starring role as Johnny Crystal in “The Pom Pom Girls” (1976). The brothers Carradine performed together onscreen as outlaws the Younger brothers in Walter Hill's respectable western, "The Long Riders" (1980).
Like his kin, Carradine had a natural ease before the camera and proved capable in a wide variety of roles. He first came into his own in his early twenties with a series of teen films, notably as a nerdy hippie in "Massacre at Central High" (1976), before garnering praise for his portrayal of a traumatized Vietnam veteran in Hal Ashby's "Coming Home" (1977). Carradine also fared well as narrator and ensemble member in Sam Fuller's tough old-fashioned WWII flick, "The Big Red One" (1980) and as the would-be writer Robert Cohn in the NBC telefilm remake of "The Sun Also Rises" (1984). He repeated his stage role as a man dying of complications from AIDS who is cared for by his former lover in "As Is" (Showtime, 1986) before delivering a nice turn as a hippie-turned-reluctant yuppie in the enjoyable comedy "Rude Awakening" (1989).
The 90s saw the actor reprising his "Nerds" role in two TV movie sequels (both of which he co-produced), "Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation" (Fox, 1992) and "Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love" (Fox, 1994). Making a radical departure, he next played a skinhead in the iconic, "John Carpenter's Escape From L.A." (1996). Carradine also made some delicious TV episodic appearances, notably as villain Joey Bermuda on "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" (ABC, 1993-97) and as a man impersonating a physician in NBC's hit "ER" (1994- ), which reunited him with his "Nerds" co-star Anthony Edwards.
In addition to working professionally as a musician and a race car driver, Carradine also found time to get behind the camera, directing a 2002 episode of Hilary Duff's Disney Channel TV show, "Lizzie McGuire" (2001-04), entitled "Lizzie's Eleven. Already familiar with the show, Carradine had been cast in the recurring role of Sam McGuire, Duff's onscreen father.