Spalding Gray

Who was Spalding Gray?

Spalding Rockwell Gray was an American actor and writer. He is known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s and 1990s.

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 celebrity status for his monologue Swimming to Cambodia, which was adapted into a film in 1987 by filmmaker Jonathan Demme. Other one-man shows by Gray that were captured on film include Monster in a Box and Gray's Anatomy.

Gray died in New York City, New York, of an apparent suicide in 2004. Film director Steven Soderbergh in 2010 made a documentary film about Gray's life entitled And Everything Is Going Fine.