Spalding Gray

Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and performance artist. Best known for his autobiographical monologues, Gray wrote and performed these one-man shows in the 1980s and 1990s. His monologues were characterized as trenchant, personal narratives delivered with a dry, WASP, quiet mania. Gray gained recognition for his monologue Swimming to Cambodia, which he adapted into a film in 1987, directed by Jonathan Demme. Other notable monologues adapted for film include Monster in a Box (1991), directed by Nick Broomfield, and Gray's Anatomy (1996), directed by Steven Soderbergh. Gray tragically died by suicide at the age of 62 in 2004.