Spalding Gray

Acting

Spalding Gray

Born 1941-06-05 · Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist. He is best known for the autobiographical 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 Willis and Ben Hodges called Gray's monologues "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania."  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 (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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Spalding Gray, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

How High poster
6.4

Jamal and Silas, two ordinary guys who smoke something magical, pass their college entrance exams with flying colors and end up at Harvard. Ivy League ways are strange but Silas and Jamal take it in a stride -- until their supply of supernatural smoke runs dry. That's when they have to start living by their wits and rely on their natural resources to make the grade.

How High

2001

Kate & Leopold poster
6.3

When her scientist ex-boyfriend discovers a portal to travel through time -- and brings back a 19th-century nobleman named Leopold to prove it -- a skeptical Kate reluctantly takes responsibility for showing Leopold the 21st century. The more time Kate spends with Leopold, the harder she falls for him. But if he doesn't return to his own time, his absence will forever alter history.

Kate & Leopold

2001

The Paper poster
6.6

Henry Hackett is the workaholic editor of a New York City tabloid. He loves his job, but the long hours and low pay are leading to discontent. Also, publisher Bernie White faces financial straits, and has hatchet-man Alicia Clark—Henry's nemesis—impose unpopular cutbacks.

The Paper

1994

Beaches poster
6.7

A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years.

Beaches

1988

Diabolique poster
5.5

The wife and mistress of a cruel school master collaborate in a carefully planned and executed scheme to murder him. The plan goes well until the body, which has been strategically dumped, disappears. The psychological strain starts to weigh on the two women when a retired police investigator begins looking into the man's disappearance on a whim.

Diabolique

1996

The Killing Fields poster
7.5

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

The Killing Fields

1984

Straight Talk poster
6.0

Honest and straightforward small-town Shirlee Kenyon chucks her boyfriend and heads for Chicago. Accidentally having to host a radio problem phone-in show, it is clear she is a natural and is hired on the spot. But the station insists she call herself Doctor, and as her popularity grows a local reporter starts digging for the truth. Problem is, the more he is around her the more he fancies her.

Straight Talk

1992

Bad Company poster
5.0

CIA operative Nelson Crowe is tasked with a deadly assignment: infiltrate a highly secret industrial espionage firm. Once inside, he teams with Margaret Wells, a master spy and seductive manipulator, in a plot to overthrow the organization's sinister president, which leads them into a darkly mysterious web of intrigue -- and shocking murder!

Bad Company

1995

Bliss poster
6.4

On his wedding day, Joseph nervously admits that his wife is not quite like other women. But his beautiful bride is more than just the "impulsive, compulsive, obsessive" woman he thinks he knows. And when Joseph discovers she is hiding troubling secrets, it sends them both on a sexual odyssey that will either destroy or redeem their relationship.

Bliss

1997

King of the Hill poster
6.8

Based on the Depression-era bildungsroman memoir of writer A. E. Hotchner, the film follows the story of a boy struggling to survive on his own in a hotel in St. Louis after his mother is committed to a sanatorium with tuberculosis. His father, a German immigrant and traveling salesman working for the Hamilton Watch Company, is off on long trips from which the boy cannot be certain he will return.

King of the Hill

1993

Seven Minutes in Heaven poster
6.1

Natalie allows her classmate Jeff, who has run away from home, to stay at her place while her father is away on a business trip. Natalie soon starts dating Jeff's friend James Casey, who isn't as faithful as she thinks, while her best friend Polly falls in love with baseball player Zoo Knudsen.

Seven Minutes in Heaven

1986

Twenty Bucks poster
5.7

A story about the life of a twenty dollar bill as it weaves in and out of the various lives of several people.

Twenty Bucks

1993

Glory Daze poster
5.2

Jack, a soon-to-be graduate, finds he's having a difficult time letting go of the college life -- and decides maybe he doesn't have to. Also questioning whether there's life after college are Jack's roommates: Rob, who fears domestication; comic-strip artist Mickey, who's shy around girls; intellectual party animal Slosh; and perpetual student Dennis.

Glory Daze

1995

Beyond Rangoon poster
6.5

Dr. Laura Bowman is a young widow who's unwittingly drawn into political turmoil while vacationing in Burma in the late 1980s. Bowman initially left San Francisco with her sister in an attempt to escape painful memories of her husband and son's violent deaths. But her fight to escape to Thailand could prove just as harrowing.

Beyond Rangoon

1995

Stars & Bars poster
4.4

A British art expert leaves New York to buy a long-lost Renoir from a Georgia eccentric.

Stars & Bars

1988

True Stories poster
6.7

A small but growing Texas town, filled with strange and musical characters, celebrates its sesquicentennial and converge on a local parade and talent show.

True Stories

1986

Clara's Heart poster
5.5

David is a teenager whose parents are in a deteriorating marriage after their infant daughter dies. Clara is a chambermaid at a Jamaican resort who's hired to be a housekeeper. She and David develop a close bond, opening his eyes and heart to new experiences, and eventually leading to a disturbing secret in Clara's past.

Clara's Heart

1988

Love-In '72 poster
10.0

A man must decide whether to flee the U.S. draft and go to Canada or stay or go fight for his country in Vietnam.

Love-In '72

1970

The Pickle poster
5.0

Harry Stone always dreamed of making "The Great American Movie." Instead, he made "The Pickle" - a teenage sci-fi flick about a flying cucumber. Harry just wanted to get out of debt; now everyone he's ever known, loved and neglected is standing in line for tickets.

The Pickle

1993

Coming Soon poster
5.6

Privileged teenage friends Jenny, Nell and Stream spend their senior year on a quest to rid Stream of her virginity. However, Stream wants more than just her first sexual experience. She wants to have an orgasm -- but achieving this proves problematic, as the boys she meets are hardly sensitive enough to provide her the release she seeks. When it becomes clear that Nell and Jenny have never experienced an orgasm either, all three set out to get one.

Coming Soon

1999

Variety poster
5.4

A young woman becomes obsessed with pornography and the mysterious rich patrons of the Times Square porn theater where she works selling tickets.

Variety

1985

Variety poster
5.4

A young woman becomes obsessed with pornography and the mysterious rich patrons of the Times Square porn theater where she works selling tickets.

Variety

1985

Swimming to Cambodia poster
7.0

Spalding Gray sits behind a desk throughout the entire film and recounts his exploits and chance encounters while playing a minor role in the film 'The Killing Fields'. At the same time, he gives a background to the events occurring in Cambodia at the time the film was set.

Swimming to Cambodia

1987

The Image poster
4.9

When career-focused journalist's investigation indirectly causes a suicide, he questions his own methods and life in general.

The Image

1990

Behind the camera

Swimming to Cambodia poster
7.0

Spalding Gray sits behind a desk throughout the entire film and recounts his exploits and chance encounters while playing a minor role in the film 'The Killing Fields'. At the same time, he gives a background to the events occurring in Cambodia at the time the film was set.

Swimming to Cambodia

1987

Gray's Anatomy poster
6.5

The film documents, in an often dramatic and humorous fashion, Gray's investigations into alternative medicine for an eye condition (Macular pucker) he had developed.

Gray's Anatomy

1996

Rumstick Road poster
NR

A video reconstruction of the 1977 Wooster Group production Rumstick Road, an experimental theater performance created by Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte after the suicide of Gray's mother. Archival recordings are combined with photographs, slides, and other materials to recreate the original production.

Rumstick Road

2014

Gray Areas poster
NR

Filmed by Renée Shafransky, Gray Areas was a documentary of the Gray’s 1984 tour of fraternal Grange halls and senior-citizen drop-in centers throughout New England. During this spring tour, Gray performed “Interviewing the Audience” that was also documented by Shafransky.

Gray Areas

1984

Spalding Gray: Terrors of Pleasure poster
9.5

Monologue by Spalding Gray about his misadventures in purchasing a home.

Spalding Gray: Terrors of Pleasure

1987

Monster in a Box poster
6.4

Monologuist Spalding Gray talks about the great difficulties he experienced while attempting to write his first novel, a nearly 2,000-page autobiographical tome concerning the death of his mother. Among his many asides, Gray discusses his problems in dealing with the Hollywood film industry, recounts the trips he took around the world in order to avoid dealing with his writer's block and describes his ambivalence about acting as stage manager for a Broadway production of "Our Town."

Monster in a Box

1992

Spalding Gray's Map of L.A. poster
5.0

Spalding Gray comes to LA to perform a set of monologues.

Spalding Gray's Map of L.A.

1984

A Personal History of the American Theater poster
NR

An autobiographical monologue in which Spalding Gray randomly draws cards for titles of the plays in which he performed in the 1960s. He proceeds to tell stories that came out of the experiences with each play.

A Personal History of the American Theater

1982

Sex and Death to the Age 14 poster
NR

Monologue created and performed by Spalding Gray, who takes us through his childhood recollections of growing up in a Christian Science household in Barrington, Rhode Island, in the 1950s.

Sex and Death to the Age 14

1982

Spalding Gray: A Life in Progress poster
NR

Performance clips and biographical anecdotes from the life of Spalding Gray.

Spalding Gray: A Life in Progress

1985