Spalding Gray

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 Grays 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 Grays 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 Grays 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 CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia