Spalding Gray

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1941-06-05

Deathday 2004-01-11 (62 years old)

Place of Birth Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Also Known As Spalding Grey

Spalding Gray

Biography

Spalding 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

Actor

2014
Rumstick Road

as Self (archive footage)

2010
And Everything Is Going Fine

as Self (archive footage)

2002
Revolution #9

as Scooter McCrae

2001
Kate & Leopold

as Dr. Geisler

2001
How High

as Prof. Jackson

2001
Julie Johnson

as Mr. Tom Miranda

1999
Coming Soon

as Mr. Jennings

1997
Bliss

as Alfred

1997
Drunks

as Louis

1996
1996
Diabolique

as Simon Veatch

1995
Glory Daze

as Jack's Dad

1995
Beyond Rangoon

as Jeremy Watt

1995
Bad Company

as Walter Curl

1994
The Paper

as Paul Bladden

1993
Zelda

as Sayre

1993
Twenty Bucks

as Priest

1993
King of the Hill

as Mr. Mungo

1993
The Pickle

as Doctor

1992
1992
Straight Talk

as Dr. Erdman

1990
The Image

as Frank Goodrich

1989
1989
Our Town

as Stage Manager

1988
Beaches

as Dr. Richard Milstein

1988
Clara's Heart

as Peter Epstein

1988
Stars & Bars

as Reverend T.J. Cardew

1986
True Stories

as Earl Culver

1986
What You Mean We?

as Talk show host

1986
1985
Almost You

as Travel Agent

1985
Variety

as Obscene Phone Caller (voice)

1985
Variety

as Voice on answering machine (voice)

1985
Hard Choices

as Terry Norfolk

1984
The Killing Fields

as U.S. Consul

1978
Maraschino Cherry

as Penny's Client with Beard (uncredited)

1975
Saturday Night Live

as Narrator of 'Brides' (voice) (uncredited)

1974
Prisoner's Dilemma

as Spalding Gray

1971
Great Performances

as Stage Manager

1970
Love-In '72

as Radical at Party