Silly Thinking

Spalding Gray 1941- 2004

Last January there was a short news flash on the AP wire that Spalding Gray was missing. There was little more on the story and we had thought he was found and it just never made the national wires.

Over the weekend the body of America’s premiere monologist was found in New York’s east river. Spalding Gray, dead of an apparent suicide at the age of 62.

A familiar figure on stage, Spalding Gray came to national attention in the film “Swimming To Cambodia” which recounted his participation in the film “The Killing Fields”. “Swimming to Cambodia” was a film record of a stage presentation with Grey sitting behind a desk with a glass of water talking to the audience in his soft Yankee accent recounting his experiences. His style was riveting and his observations of life were funny, touching, and illuminated the human experience in the same way Mark Twain or Will Rogers did for past generations. He went on to 30 films, in supporting roles, and did stand out work in “True Stories”, “Beaches”, and the little seen “20 Bucks” among others.

In 2001, during a vacation in Ireland, Gray was in a horrible head on car accident that left him in poor health and suicidal. He had attempted suicide at least twice since then.

“It’s a slippery slope” Gray told his audience once, referring to deep depression on the occasion of his 52nd birthday. His mother had suffered two nervous breakdowns and committed suicide when she was that age.

Spalding Gray was (to use an overused word that really does apply here) brilliant. His ability to arrange his life into theatre was amazing and so funny.

Spalding Gray’s monolog’s, his art, was so open, and his ability to find humor in the most unlikely places was so personal and yet his experiences could change the way the audience viewed their own lives. That is the essence, the purpose, of art and humor and Spalding Gray was an artist of the highest caliber.

But that ability came at a high price.