Keith Carradine

Born: August 8 1949
Where: San Mateo, California, USA

The actor and singer first attracted attention when he won an Oscar for the song I'm Easy which featured in Robert Altman's Nashville.

The son of the legendary John Carradine, brother of David "Kill Bill" Carradine and father of Martha Plimpton, he begun his career in the Broadway musical Hair.

He made his big screen debut in 1971 in the Kirk Douglas/Johnny Cash Western A Gunfight.

His appearance caught the eye of director Robert Altman who cast him in McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

Carradine fell in love with Shelley Duvall in Altman's Thieves Like Us in 1974 and then co-starred as a country and western singer in Altman's masterpiece, Nashville.

He first worked with Altman protege Alan Rudolph in 1976's Welcome to L.A. (to which he also contributed music), inaugurating a collaboration which has included Choose Me and The Moderns.

Walter Hill's The Long Riders gave Carradine the chance to work with his brothers David and Robert, and he also acted with David in You and Me, which the older Carradine directed.

He was back on Broadway in 1982, co-starring with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, and returned nearly a decade later in the musical The Will Rogers Follies for which he received a Tony nomination.

After that Broadway run, Carradine returned to the screen in a number of lacklustre vehicles including Daddy's Dyin', Who's Got the Will and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe.

The family adventure Andre was based on the "true" story of a seal who adopts a Maine family, featured Carradine as the likable dad.

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, based on the famed literary circle of the Algonquin Hotel, allowed him to reprise his Will Rogers' characterization.

After more than 25 years in the business, Carradine made his first appearance in a long-running TV show - stock car racing series Fast Track.

He also acted that year in two features, Stand Off, set against a cult-engineered backdrop of deadly gunfire, and A Thousand Acres as Michelle Pfeiffer's husband.

Carradine went on to star in the forgettable Out of the Cold and alongside Burt Reynolds in the action drama Hunter's Moon.

In 2002, he starred in the Icelandic art house hit Falcons and the nostalgic children's movie The Angel Doll.