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Also Known As: | Died: | January 10, 2004 | |
Born: | June 5, 1941 | Cause of Death: | suicide |
Birth Place: | Barrington, Rhode Island, USA | Profession: | actor, playwright, performance artist, author |
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Anxiety-ridden New Englander known for his autobiographical monologues and his association with the NYC experimental theater company, The Wooster Group, which he co-founded in 1977. His experience as a bit player in "The Killing Fields" (1984) was translated into an OBIE-award winning one-person show and then into the film "Swimming to Cambodia" (1987), directed by Jonathan Demme. Prior to his breakthrough, Gray was memorable in a small role in David Byrne's "True Stories" (1986). As a result of the success of "Swimming to Cambodia," he continued to appear in features--while devoting time to writing and stage performances--usually playing doctors or other WASP establishment figures. His films include "Beaches," as a doctor, "Clara's Heart" (both 1988) and "Straight Talk" (1992), again as a doctor. Gray also worked in TV. In 1992, he returned to his roots with "Monster in a Box," a film version of his acclaimed staged monologue. Chronicling Gray's life after "Swimming to Cambodia" and his struggle to write a semi-autobiographical novel, "Impossible Vacation." He next appeared in Paul Mazursky's "The Pickle" (1993), as . . . a doctor. He had a change of pace portraying a newspaper editor in Ron...
Anxiety-ridden New Englander known for his autobiographical monologues and his association with the NYC experimental theater company, The Wooster Group, which he co-founded in 1977. His experience as a bit player in "The Killing Fields" (1984) was translated into an OBIE-award winning one-person show and then into the film "Swimming to Cambodia" (1987), directed by Jonathan Demme.
Prior to his breakthrough, Gray was memorable in a small role in David Byrne's "True Stories" (1986). As a result of the success of "Swimming to Cambodia," he continued to appear in features--while devoting time to writing and stage performances--usually playing doctors or other WASP establishment figures. His films include "Beaches," as a doctor, "Clara's Heart" (both 1988) and "Straight Talk" (1992), again as a doctor. Gray also worked in TV.
In 1992, he returned to his roots with "Monster in a Box," a film version of his acclaimed staged monologue. Chronicling Gray's life after "Swimming to Cambodia" and his struggle to write a semi-autobiographical novel, "Impossible Vacation." He next appeared in Paul Mazursky's "The Pickle" (1993), as . . . a doctor. He had a change of pace portraying a newspaper editor in Ron Howard's "The Paper" (1994) and was a tour group leader in "Beyond Rangoon" (1995). In 1998, Gray displayed his ablities to carry an entire show when he performed soley in "Morning, Noon and Night." He then joined rappers Method Man and Redman for the feature "How High," A comedy about two students who, after being accepted to Harvard, manage to turn the campus upside-down. (2001) In the 2002 feature "Revolution #9," Gray co-starred in the thriller with veteran Adrienne Shelly and newcomer Michael Risley.
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Notes
In June 2001, Gray suffered a broken hip and fractured skull in an automobile accident in County West Meath, Ireland.
"On some level art and therapy are the same. Both are about ordering raw material to make it conscious." --Spalding Gray in TheaterWeek (December 3, 1990).
"My life is much more balanced now with the family, and I hadn't expected that. The character of Spalding Gray is more grounded than he's ever been." --to Meg Donivan in an online interview at www.theatermania.com, June 12, 2000.
Gray has taught at NYU's Experimental Theater Wing for six years; he has also taught storytelling at Columbia University and has given workshops in autobiographical theater techniques.
Gray has received playwriting fellowships from the National Endowment For the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Gray checked into a Manhattan hospital on October 2, 2002 for depression. His representative added that Gray has been depressed since suffering a severe head trauma in a car accident last year in Ireland.
January 10, 2004, walked out of his Manhattan apartment and disappeared; March 8, 2004, Grey's body was pulled from the East River
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