Editing Spalding Gray (section)

{{Short description|American actor and writer  (1941–2004)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Spalding Gray
| image         = Early gray.jpg 
| caption       = Gray at the [[Performing Garage]] (1979–81). Photograph by Gary Schoichet.
| alt           =
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1941|6|5}}
| birth_name    =
| birth_place   = [[Providence, Rhode Island]], U.S.
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|2004|1|11|1941|6|5}}
| death_place   = [[New York City]], U.S.
| resting_place = [[Oakland Cemetery (Sag Harbor, New York)|Oakland Cemetery]]<br />[[Sag Harbor, New York]], U.S.
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} -->
| children      = 2
| years active  = 1960s–2003
| occupation    = {{Hlist|Actor|novelist|playwright|screenwriter|performance artist}}
| spouse        = {{Plain list|
* {{Marriage|[[Renée Shafransky]]|1991|1993|end=div}}
* {{Marriage|Kathleen Russo|1994}}
}}
}}

'''Spalding Gray''' (June 5, 1941 – {{Circa|January 11, 2004}}) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and [[performance artist]]. He is best known for the autobiographical [[One-person show|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 A. Willis|John Willis]] and Ben Hodges called Gray's monologues "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, [[White Anglo-Saxon Protestant|WASP]], quiet mania."<ref>[[John A. Willis|Willis, John]]; Hodges, Ben (2006). ''Theatre World: Volume 60''. [[Hal Leonard Corporation]].</ref>{{rp|316}} 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 that he adapted for film were ''[[Monster in a Box]]'' (1991), directed by [[Nick Broomfield]], and ''[[Gray's Anatomy (film)|Gray's Anatomy]]'' (1996), directed by [[Steven Soderbergh]].

Gray died by suicide at the age of 62 after jumping into [[New York Harbor]] on January 11, 2004. He had been struggling with depression and severe injuries following a car accident. Soderbergh made a documentary film about Gray's life, ''[[And Everything Is Going Fine]]'' (2010). An unfinished monologue and a selection from his journals were published in 2005 and 2011, respectively.