Spalding Gray

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
Spalding Gray

Gray in the 1996 film Gray's Anatomy
Born June 5, 1941(1941-06-05)
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died ca. January 10, 2004 (aged 62)
New York, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s) Renée Shafransky (1991-1993)
Kathleen Russo (1994-2004)

Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – ca. January 10, 2004) was an American actor, screenwriter, performance artist, and playwright.

Contents

[edit] Career

After a few minor cinema roles and appearing in The Farmer's Daughter, a pornographic film, Gray first achieved national prominence with his film Swimming to Cambodia, a filmed version of one of his monologues. He based the monologue on his experiences in Southeast Asia while filming a small part in the 1984 movie The Killing Fields.

He attracted some attention from postmodernist critics over the extent of the overlap between his off-stage self and his on-stage persona[citation needed]. In addition, he was sometimes accused of appropriating the fortunes or misfortunes of others for material for his monologues.[citation needed] Aside from his more well-known monologues, Gray was a founding member of the experimental theater company The Wooster Group, and appeared in a large number of plays, including a high-profile revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

In the early 1990s, Gray published his first and only novel, Impossible Vacation. The novel is strongly based upon Gray's own life experiences, including his Christian Scientist upbringing, his WASP background, and his mother's suicide. True to form, Gray wrote a monologue about his experiences writing the book, entitled Monster in a Box.

In June 2001 he suffered severe injuries in a car crash while on holiday in Ireland. In January 2004, Gray, known to suffer bouts of depression in part as a result of these injuries, was declared missing. The night before his disappearance he had seen Tim Burton's film Big Fish, which ends with the line "A man tells a story over and over so many times he becomes the story. In that way, he is immortal." Gray's widow, Kathie Russo, has said “You know, Spalding cried after he saw that movie. I just think it gave him permission. I think it gave him permission to die.” (New York Magazine February 2, 2004)

[edit] Death

When Gray was first declared missing, his profile was featured on the FOX Network show America's Most Wanted.[1]

On March 7, 2004, the New York City medical examiner's office reported that Gray's body had been pulled from the East River. It is believed that he jumped off the side of the Staten Island Ferry. In light of a suicide attempt in 2002, and the fact that his mother had taken her own life in 1967, suicide was the suspected cause of death.[2] It was reported that Gray was working on a new monologue at the time of his death, and that the subject matter of the piece – the Ireland car crash and his subsequent attempts to recover from his injuries – might have triggered his final bout of depression.[3]

He was survived by his wife, Kathie Russo, stepdaughter Marisa, two sons, Forrest Dylan Gray (aka "Forrest Fire Gray"), guitarist with the band Too Busy Being Bored, and Theo Spalding Gray, an actor, and brothers Channing and Rockwell Gray.

[edit] Posthumous works

In 2005, Gray's unfinished final monologue was published in a hardcover edition entitled Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue. Running 39 pages, the monologue — which Gray had performed in one of his last public appearances — is augmented by two additional pieces he also performed at the time, a short remembrance called "The Anniversary" and an open letter to New York City written in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Also included in the book is an extensive collection of remembrances and tributes from fellow performers and friends.

Spalding Gray's voice is still being heard through the resurrection of his journal entries in the 2007 play Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City. The concept for this play was derived by Gray's widow.[4] The show includes a cast of four actors as well as one revolving cast member.[5]

[edit] Cultural references

  • A film adaptation of Life Interrupted is to be released in 2008 at Toronto Film Festival, and is being directed by Steven Soderbergh.
  • Currently, the play Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell is being performed by a cast of four and a rotating guest star, at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City.(This play has now ended)
  • An article titled "What It Feels Like to Find Spalding Gray's Body" on page 91 in the August 2007 issue of Esquire, depicts the first hand experiences of the man who discovered Spalding Gray's body.
  • In season one, episode 3 of Family Guy, Brian calls Peter Griffin the "Spalding Gray of crap" after Peter tells an elaborate and unbelievable story.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Movies written and performed by Spalding Gray

[edit] Actor

[edit] Television

[edit] Bibliography

All are based on monologues unless noted. A number of Monologues are missing from this list; the official website contains a complete list. All the monologues are to be released as a Box Set at some time after Soderbergh opening.

Cover of Swimming to Cambodia (1987).
Cover of Swimming to Cambodia (1987).
  • Rumstick Road (1977)
  • Point Judith (1979)
  • Swimming to Cambodia (1985)
  • Rivkala's Ring (in Orchards, 1985)
  • Sex and Death to the Age 14 (1986)
  • In Search of the Monkey Girl (1987)
  • Monster in a Box (1992)
  • Impossible Vacation (novel, 1993)
  • Gray's Anatomy (1994)
  • It's a Slippery Slope (1997)
  • Morning, Noon and Night (1999)
  • Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue (2005)

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/brief.cfm?id=25815
  2. ^ http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/wire/2004/03/08/spalding/index.html
  3. ^ http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/features/n_9787/
  4. ^ http://www.storieslefttotell.com/Abouttheshow.html
  5. ^ http://www.storieslefttotell.com/index.html

[edit] External links