Human Rights A Day

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 infi