Editing Spalding Gray (section)

==Health problems and death==
In June 2001, Gray was severely injured in a car crash while on vacation in Ireland. In the crash, he suffered a broken hip, which left his right leg almost immobilized, and a fracture in his skull.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-03-12-0203120010-story.html | title=Spalding Gray's new reality | website=[[Chicago Tribune]] | date=March 12, 2002 }}</ref> During surgery on his skull, a [[Titanium#Medical|titanium]] plate was placed over the break after surgeons removed dozens of bone fragments from his [[Frontal lobe|frontal cortex]], leaving a jagged scar on his forehead. He struggled to recover from his injuries and a severe depression set in some time after the accident. He had already struggled intermittently with depression.<ref name="sacks">{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-catastrophe-oliver-sacks |last=Sacks |first=Oliver |author-link=Oliver Sacks |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |publisher=[[Condé Nast]] |title=The Catastrophe |date=April 27, 2015}}</ref> Suffering both from physical impairment and ongoing depression, Gray struggled for months and was treated with a variety of different therapies.<ref name="NYmag2">{{cite web | last = Williams | first = Alex  | title = Vanishing Act  | work = [[New York (magazine)|New York]]| date = February 2, 2004 | url = http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/features/n_9787/ | access-date = July 9, 2008}}</ref>

Gray sought treatment from [[neurologist]] [[Oliver Sacks]], who began treating him in August 2003 and continued to do so almost until Gray died. Sacks later said Gray perceived the taking of his own life as part of what he had to say, with the monologuist having "talked about what he called 'a creative suicide.' On one occasion, when he was being interviewed, he thought that the interview might be culminated with a 'dramatic and creative suicide.' I was at pains to say that he would be much more creative alive than dead."<ref name="sacks" />

On January 9, 2004, Gray had an interview with Theresa Smalec, the subject of which was [[Ron Vawter]], a deceased friend and colleague whom he had met in the winter of 1972–73. Gray and Vawter had worked closely together throughout the 1970s, first with The Performance Group, then as core members of The Wooster Group. The edited transcript of "Spalding Gray's Last Interview" was published in 2008 by the ''New England Theatre Journal''.<ref>{{cite web | last = Smalec | first = Theresa | title = Spalding Gray's Last Interview | work = New England Theatre Journal | year = 2008 | url = http://www.netconline.org/netc-publications.php | access-date = September 7, 2009}}</ref>

On January 11, 2004, Gray was declared missing. The night before, he had taken his children to see [[Tim Burton]]'s film ''[[Big Fish]].'' It ends with the line, "A man tells a story over and over so many times he becomes the story. In that way, he is immortal." Gray's widow, Kathie Russo, said after he disappeared, "You know, Spalding cried after he saw that movie. I just think it gave him permission. I think it gave him permission to die."<ref name="NYmag2" />

When Gray was first reported missing, his profile was featured on the Fox Network television show ''[[America's Most Wanted]].''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/brief.cfm?id=25815 |title=Spalding Gray – Missing Person | work = [[America's Most Wanted]] |access-date= December 4, 2009}}</ref>

In early March 2004, Gray's body was found in the [[East River]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/nyregion/body-of-spalding-gray-found-monologuist-and-actor-was-62.html|title=Body of Spalding Gray Found; Monologuist and Actor Was 62|last=Dewan|first=Shaila|date=March 9, 2004|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|last2=McKinley|first2=Jesse|access-date=May 18, 2025}}</ref> It is believed that he jumped off the [[Staten Island Ferry]]. He had previously attempted suicide in 2002.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/obituaries/spalding-grays-body-is-found-2-months-after-disappearance.html?_r=0|title=Spalding Gray's Body Is Found 2 Months After Disappearance|agency=[[Associated Press]]|newspaper=The New York Times| date=March 8, 2004|access-date=March 2, 2017}}</ref> Gray was reported to have been working on a new monologue at the time of his death. There was speculation that his revisiting the material of the car crash in Ireland and his subsequent attempts to recover from his injuries might have triggered a final bout of depression.<ref name="NYmag2" />

Gray was buried at [[Oakland Cemetery (Sag Harbor, New York)|Oakland Cemetery]] in [[Sag Harbor, New York|Sag Harbor]], New York. He was survived by his wife Kathie Russo, stepdaughter Marissa, sons Forrest Dylan<ref>Forrest Dylan Gray</ref> and Theo Spalding Gray, and brothers Rockwell and Channing Gray.

===Legacy===
Theater historian Don Wilmeth noted Gray's contribution to a unique style of writing and acting: 
{{quote|The 1980s saw the rise of the autobiographical monologue, its leading practitioner Spalding Gray, the WASP from Rhode Island who portrays himself as an innocent abroad in a crazy contemporary world. . . others, like Mike Feder, who grew up in Queens and began telling his life on New York radio, pride themselves on their theatrical minimalism, and simply sit and talk. Audiences come to autobiography for direct connection and great stories, both sometimes hard to find in today's theatre.<ref>Wilmeth, Don B.; Miller, Tice L. (1996). ''Cambridge Guide to American Theatre''. [[Cambridge University Press]].</ref>{{rp|293}}}}

Describing the play-film monologue, theatre director Mark Russell wrote: 
{{quote|He broke it all down to a table, a glass of water, a spiral notebook and a mic. Poor theatre—a man and an audience and a story. Spalding sitting at that table, speaking into the mic, calling forth the script of his life from his memory and those notebooks. A simple ritual: part news report, part confessional, part American raconteur. One man piecing his life back together, one memory, one true thing at a time. Like all genius things, it was a simple idea turned on its axis to become absolutely fresh and radical."<ref name=Swimming/>}}

Journalist and author [[Roger Rosenblatt]] described Gray as 
{{quote|Spalding the storyteller... Spalding the mystical. Spalding the hilarious. Spalding the self-exposed, the professionally puzzled, the scared, the brave. Spalding the supporting actor. That's what he was in the movies. But as a writer and a stage performer, he changed the idea of what a supporting actor is. He supported ''us''... He played our part... We tacitly elect a few to be the chief tellers of our tales. Spalding was one of the elected. The specialty of his storytelling was the search for a sorrow that could be alchemized into a myth. He went for the misery sufficiently deep to create a story that makes us laugh... In so doing, he invented a form, a very rare thing among artists. Some called it the 'epic monologue' because first it was spoken and then it was written, like the old epics, and because it consisted of great and important themes drawn from the hero's life...And the one true heroic element in his makeup was the willingness to be open, rapidly open, about his confusions, his frailties."<ref name=Swimming>Gray, Spalding (2005). ''Swimming to Cambodia''. Theatre Communications Group.</ref>{{rp|Intro}} }}

Director Jonathan Demme said of Gray, "Spalding's unfailing ability to ignite universal emotions and laughter in all of us while gloriously wallowing in his own exquisite uniqueness will remain forever one of the great joys of American performance and literature".<ref name=Swimming/>

"He took the anarchy and illogic of life and molded it into something we could grab a hold of," said actor and novelist [[Eric Bogosian]]. "It took courage to do what Spalding did, courage to make theatre so naked and unadorned, to expose himself in this way and to fight his demons in public."

Theater critic Mel Gussow wrote of Gray's ''Swimming to Cambodia'' and ''Terrors of Pleasure'', "Through a look or a comment, he offers intelligent analysis. Though the narrative is entirely centered around Mr. Gray himself, it never suffers from self-pity or self-indulgence. He remains the antihero in his own fascinating life story, the never ending tale of EverySpalding."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gussow|first1=Mel|title=Theatre: Spalding Gray. Review of Terrors of Pleasure, by Spalding Gray|work=The New York Times|date=May 15, 1986}}</ref>

===Posthumous works by and about him===
In 2005, Gray's unfinished final monologue was published in a hardcover edition titled ''Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue.'' The monologue, which Gray had performed in one of his last public appearances, is augmented by two additional pieces he performed at the time, a short remembrance called "The Anniversary" and an open letter to New York City written in the wake of the [[September 11 attacks]]. Also included in the book is an extensive collection of remembrances and tributes from fellow performers and friends.

The 2007 play ''Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell,'' produced at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City, is based on his monologues and journals. Kathleen Russo, his widow, developed the concept for the play.<ref name="brantley"/> The show has a cast of four actors as well as a rotating guest artist; all five read from selected portions of his work.<ref name="brantley">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/theater/reviews/07gray.html |author-link=Ben Brantley|first=Ben |last=Brantley |title=A Master of Monologues, Living on in His Words|work=The New York Times|date= March 7, 2007|access-date= February 19, 2017}}</ref>

In January 2010, [[Steven Soderbergh]]'s documentary ''[[And Everything Is Going Fine]]'' was released at Utah's [[Slamdance Film Festival]]. The film was compiled from film and video clips of Gray's early life and career. Russo said that Soderbergh "wanted Spalding to tell the story, as if it was his last monologue, and I think he accomplished that".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/movies/17soderbergh.html |title=One Singular Auteur, Through Another|work=The New York Times|date= January 15, 2010}}</ref>

In 2011 a selection from his journals was published as ''The Journals of Spalding Gray,'' edited by Nell Casey, who had worked with Russo on the project.<ref name="rosenbaum">{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/books/review/the-journals-of-spalding-gray-edited-by-nell-casey-book-review.html |first=Ron|last= Rosenbaum|title= What Spalding Gray Left Us|work=The 'New York Times|date= October 28, 2011|access-date= February 19, 2017}}</ref> Dwight Garner found this material less interesting than Gray's monologues. He said they have value as a "portrait of a theatrical coming of age" as Gray determined how to make his art. Garner wrote, "His art, these journals make clear, is what kept him alive."<ref name="garner">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/books/journals-of-spalding-gray-edited-by-nell-casey-review.html?action=click&contentCollection=Sunday%20Book%20Review&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article |first=Dwight|last= Garner|title=Peering Beyond a Monologist's Stage Presence Into His Uncensored Mind| work=The New York Times|date= October 17, 2011|access-date= February 19, 2017}}</ref>

The 2016 season of the Independent Film Channel's mockumentary television series ''[[Documentary Now!]]'' includes the episode "Parker Gail's Location is Everything," a parody of Gray's ''[[Swimming to Cambodia]]''.<ref>{{Citation|title="Documentary Now!" Parker Gail's Location Is Everything (TV Episode 2016) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5819980/fullcredits|access-date=June 22, 2019}}</ref> In it, [[Bill Hader]] delivers a monologue expressing his dismay at having to find a new loft apartment in New York City upon learning that his current residence will be converted into an electronics store.