January 10, 2004 - Spalding Gray - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Actor, screenwriter, monologist Spalding Gray kills self during a depression. On January 10, 2004, Spalding Gray was to have flown to Aspen, Colorado from New York, but his flight was cancelled. Instead, he took his two boys, Theo and Forrest, to see the movie Big Fish, about a dying father and his relationship with his son. After the movie, he said he was going to visit friends, but never reached their home. Two months later, on March 9th, Gray’s body was pulled out of the East River. Spalding Gray was born in Barrington, Rhode Island on June 5, 1941, one of three boys to a homemaker mother and factory worker father. Gray began acting in high school and carried on in regional theatres until moving to New York where he created plays based on his childhood memories. By 1979 Gray had launched a new kind of performance art becoming known as a “monologist.” He would tell stories using minimal props, such as a desk, water and some notes. He spoke openly with darkness and humour about his life, including his infidelity and his battle with depression. His own mother, suffering from depression, had killed herself at the age of 52. Gray spoke to audiences of his deep depression as he approached the same age. He performed his craft in large theatres and on Broadway, as well as in many movies. In 2001, while on vacation in Ireland, his family and others were in a van that crashed. Gray was the only one not wearing a seatbelt. Depressed at the slow pace of his recovery, he said on a number of occasions that he would kill himself. When he finally did so on January 10, 2004, he was 62 years old. (Note: Health Canada states that approximately eight per cent of adult Canadians are affected by a major depression at some time in their life.)

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