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Spalding Gray found dead

water logged

medea said:
Actor-writer Spalding Gray, who laid bare his life and mingled performance art with comedy in acclaimed monologues like ``Swimming to Cambodia,'' was found dead over the weekend, two months after he walked out of his Manhattan apartment and disappeared. He was 62.
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had a feeling he'd die swimming. Swimming to Cambodia woke me from my high school slumber when i caught it late one night on HBO, led me to watch The Killing Fields, and to realisation that there's a big bad world out there. thanks for the eye opener Spalding, you'll be missed.

a little surprised that no out there has replied to this thread yet. Swimming... is a worthwhile & entertaining 90 minutes & Killing Fields just might jolt you for the next week or so....
 
This one hurts. I loved his stuff and had the pleasure of seeing him perform a work in progress. A desk, a chair, a table, that was all he needed to captivate you with his unbelievable storytelling skills. I always looked forward to a new work and feel sorry for the pain he couldn't escape.
 
I saw this yesterday in the news. I'm waiting to hear official word, but it looks like suicide likely (esp based on his history).
 
Oh, Spalding Gray. More than a story teller: a story relator. When he spoke, I heard a tale from a voice that I know I have in me and I suspect we all have if we care to listen. When he recounted, I could relate -- and uncommonly so -- to what he said.

Maybe (when we can breathe a little deeper) we might take away an uncommon glimpse into just how insidious, pervasive and beyond our control suicide really is. Speaking from objective ignorance, it would seem that Spalding had everything one could hope for from other people: loving family, public acknowledgement and adoration, financial security and respect in his chosen community. Is there anything that we held back? Did we fail him in some way? I suspect that this was not the making of some great neglect on the part of the world. This was something from within him.

The world is a tough place.
 
god, this is really terrible... i'm emotionally shattered... i-- wait, i don't know who this guy is. umm.... hmm... nope, nothing. from the way you guys talk about him tho, it sounds like i should go look for some of his work.

suicides are always sad. i'm still not over Jonathan Brandis-- i mean, i had a crush on him for more than half my life. :(

paul
 
Spalding Gray was an actor and writer. He appeared in a number of films, probably the most famous being "The Killing Fields" and the most recent well known one being "Kate and Leopold".

However, his real talent was in monologue. Best known is "Swimming to Cambodia", but he has done a number of others ("Gray's Anatomy" and "It's a Slippery Slope" come to mind). These are available as books, but there is -- I guess, "was" -- simply no substitute for watching Gray do his work live. Him, a table, a chair, a glass of water.

Amazon.com has his stuff. But you might want to save your money if your favorite movie is "Speed 2" or "Ace Ventura" -- not that there's anything wrong with that....
 
He had a history of depression so it is very likely that it was suicide. A local radio personalty is a neighbor and friend of his, commented on this topic. "Spalding was in an accident in Europe last year, he was not the same man. Seemed to be more depressed. Just no longer enjoying life."

He will be greatly missed, a good actor comic, and writer. A very sad story.
 
True -- Gray was in a head-on auto collision in Ireland (in 2001, I thought), suffering head trauma as well as a broken leg/hip(?).

I recall reading that while his wife had thought that he had worked through most of his depression, it seemed to come back while he was trying to recover physically.

Gray was rumored to be working on a new monologue based on his physical therapy from this accident before his disappearance.
 
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