Spaulding Gray
| Spalding Gray | |
|---|---|
At the Performing Garage (1979–81). Photograph by Gary Schoichet
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| Born |
Spalding Rockwell Gray June 5, 1941 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Died | January 11, 2004 (aged 62) East River New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Suicide by drowning |
| Resting place |
Oakland Cemetery Sag Harbor, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor and writer |
| Spouse(s) | Renée Shafransky (1991–1993) Kathleen Russo (1994–2004; his death) |
Spalding Rockwell Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor and writer. 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 described his monologue work as "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 which Gray adapted for film were Monster in a Box (1991), directed by Nick Broomfield, and Gray's Anatomy (1996), directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Gray is believed to have committed suicide in New York City in January 2004, after struggling with depression and severe injuries following a car accident. Steven Soderbergh made a documentary film about Gray's life entitled And Everything Is Going Fine (2010). An unfinished monologue and a selection from his journals were published in 2005 and 2011, respectively.
Spalding Rockwell Gray was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Margaret Elizabeth "Betty" (née Horton), a homemaker, and Rockwell Gray, Sr., the treasurer of Brown & Sharpe. He was the middle-born of three sons; his brothers were Rockwell, Jr. and Channing. They were raised in the Christian Science faith of their mother. Gray and his brothers grew up in Barrington, Rhode Island, spending summers at their grandmother's house in Newport, Rhode Island. Rockwell became a literature professor at Washington University of Saint Louis, and Channing a journalist in Rhode Island.
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