Spalding Gray
ActingSpalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist. He is best known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as for his film adaptations of these works, beginning in 1987. He wrote and starred in several, working with different directors. Theater critics John Willis and Ben Hodges called Gray's monologues "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania." Gray achieved renown for his monologue Swimming to Cambodia, which he adapted as a 1987 film in which he starred; it was directed by Jonathan Demme. Other of his monologues that he adapted for film were Monster in a Box (1991), directed by Nick Broomfield, and Gray's Anatomy (1996), directed by Steven Soderbergh. Gray died by suicide at the age of 62 after jumping into New York Harbor on January 11, 2004. He had been struggling with depression and severe injuries following a car accident. Soderbergh made a documentary film about Gray's life, And Everything Is Going Fine (2010). An unfinished monologue and a selection from his journals were published in 2005 and 2011, respectively. Description above from the Wikipedia article Spalding Gray, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Filmography — Acting
How High
Prof. Jackson
The Image
Frank Goodrich
Kate & Leopold
Dr. Geisler
Diabolique
Simon Veatch
Beaches
Dr. Richard Milstein
The Killing Fields
U.S. Consul
Bliss
Alfred
The Paper
Paul Bladden
Glory Daze
Jack's Dad
Seven Minutes in Heaven
Dr. Rodney
Bad Company
Walter Curl
Straight Talk
Dr. Erdman
The Pickle
Doctor
Coming Soon
Mr. Jennings
Beyond Rangoon
Jeremy Watt
Drunks
Louis
True Stories
Earl Culver
King of the Hill
Mr. Mungo
Twenty Bucks
Priest
Clara's Heart
Peter Epstein
Stars & Bars
Reverend T.J. Cardew
Almost You
Travel Agent
Variety
Obscene Phone Caller (voice)
Julie Johnson
Mr. Tom Miranda
Gray's Anatomy
Spalding Gray
Swimming to Cambodia
Self
Heavy Petting
Self
Hard Choices
Terry Norfolk
Our Town
Stage Manager
Zelda
Sayre
To Save a Child
And Everything Is Going Fine
Self (archive footage)
Yesterday's Tomorrows
Self
Revolution #9
Scooter McCrae
Monster in a Box
Self
Real Life
Earl Culver
Love-In '72
Radical at Party
Thirty Second Spots: TV Commercials for Artists (1982-83)
Spalding Gray
Laurie Anderson: The Collected Videos
The Talk Show Host
Anybody's Woman
Rumstick Road
Self (archive footage)
Sex and Death to the Age 14
Himself
A Personal History of the American Theater
Himself
Spalding Gray: Terrors of Pleasure
Spalding Gray
Double Lunar Dogs
Spalding Gray's Map of L.A.
Spalding Gray
What You Mean We?
Talk show host
Spalding Gray: A Life in Progress
Himself
Prisoner's Dilemma
Spalding Gray
Confessions of a Sociopath
Himself
The Farmer's Daughters
George
Maraschino Cherry
Penny's Client with Beard (uncredited)