Topic: Spalding Gray

Spalding Rockwell Gray (June 5, 1941 – ca. January 10, 2004) was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist, and monologist. He was primarily known for his "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania.":316 Gray achieved notoriety for writing and acting in the play Swimming to Cambodia, adapted into a film in 1987.

He began his career in regional theatre, moved to New York in 1967 and three years later joined Richard Schechner's experimental troupe, the Performance Group. He co-founded the Wooster Group ensemble in 1975. He died in New York City of an apparent suicide.

Spalding Rockwell Gray was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Rockwell Gray, Sr. who was a factory worker, and Margaret Elizabeth "Lizzie" Horton, who was a homemaker. He also had two younger brothers named Rockwell Gray, Jr. and Channing Michael Gray. He was raised in the Christian Scientist faith and grew up in Barrington, Rhode Island, and spent summers at his grandmother's house in Newport.