Where in the World is Spalding Gray? (UPDATE: A sad answer to the question) (1 Viewer)

[Coressel]

Spalding Gray is missing:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi...tor/index.html


This is very sad and disturbing. I'm a big fan of his and hope he's ok.




:frowning:

 

[Chris]

Me too. I still keep a copy of "Monster in a Box" and "Swimming to Cambodia" .. Gray had a really interesting way of using the spoken world and his narratives always kept me interested.

I know he has had a terrible time with depression, which apparently runs thick in his family (or so his brother believes) but here's hoping he's OK and nothing ill has happened.

 

[Coressel]

Let's hope he still has it...

 

[MartinTeller]

I'm a big big fan.... I hope he's okay.

 

[Henry Gale]

Come back Spalding, come back!

 

[Coressel]

This is not looking good:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi...tor/index.html

 

[Paul McElligott]

Yeah, when you hear the words "missing" and "depressed" in reference to the same person, suicide is not an unreasonable assumption.

 

[Henry Gale]

The family reports that he saw Big Fish last week. While watching it myself I was trying to imagine how it might have influenced Spalding, and I've got to admit I was crying for more than one reason at the end.

 

[Henry Gale]

Well, gone and forgotten apparently.

 

[Chris]

:frowning:

 

[dave_brogli]

who's spalding gray??

 

[Christ Reynolds]

apparently he is somebody to someone, better try lol'ing elsewhere.

CJ

 

[dave_brogli]

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Dave,

I don't think it's the least bit surprising someone took offense to your comment (in fact, you seemed to know it was in bad taste as well)... Regardless of your knowledge or lack of knowledge on who the guy is, when someone is missing and presumed dead- it might be a bad time to joke about them in general, let alone on the fact that you don't know who they are.

And the followup was essentially beating the horse. It certainly approaches a situation with levity that might better be address with respect-- even if you think that the levity was pointed in your own direction. Spalding is/was a very highly regarded writer and commentator who's skewed sense of the world connected with many, many people... ref to him and his work permiate many areas of the world (in fact the Simpsons live on "Spalding Way" in a direct homage from MG to Mr. Gray).

It's one thing to admit to not knowing who someone is, it is another to express this sentiment in a discussion avbout his (quite probable) death, and it quite another to take that to the point of humor or jest in the light of the current situation.

Granted he may not have been a member of my family, but my sorrow for his situation has little to do with his "fame" and rather much to do with the connection I was able to make to him via his work.

And to suggest that someone else is an "ass" for taking offense at your comments only compounds the problem--- and highlights even further how much character it really does take to simply accept when you've acted out of line, and move forward. And it certainly shows that either myself or you are out of step with the mood of this forum, which I always liked to think was respectful and mature... I certainly hope it's not me who is mistaken in this case.

-V

 

[Henry Gale]

Well said Vince....

Perhaps my Shane referance in post #5 tickled young dave. But on January 15th I still had a glimmer of hope. As we face March 1st that hope has faded.
Jokes about tragedy are usually acceptable only after a hundred years or so.

"Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

 

[dave_brogli]

thank you vince. I see what your saying

but who is he.........?? All I found was he was in beaches??

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

He was in beaches as well as about 40 other films, including Gray's Anatomy, a one man monolog film directed by Steven Soderbergh- and it's available on DVD. He also starred in a film version of his autobiography "Swimming to Cambodia" directed by Jonathan Demme... (the book is also based upon his appearance as an actor in "The Killing Fields" directed by Roland Joffé)

So, two films starring only Spalding were directed by Oscar winning directors...

He's released other "monologue" films that he wrote, like Terrors of Pleasure (directed by Thomas Schlamme who has won tons of awards as the main director behind the West Wing), Monster in a Box (directed by Nick Broomfield who got famous for his horrible doc "Kurt and COurtney").

There are very talented people who lined up to help work on films of a monologue from Spalding, just him sitting and telling stories, and he's so intriguing that amazing and visionary directors want to work with him...

Spalding's films have come from his written work, including Monster in a Box, Swimming to Cambodia, etc. Spalding has also written a dozen other books:
Morning Noon and Night, It's a Slippery Slope, Sex and Death to the Age of 14, Impossible Vacation, etc.

He was the co-founder of the Wooster Theatre Group (a group that produced actors like Willem Dafoe), he has appeared on Broadway... He's basically a very smart and interesting guy who worked as an actor and turned his crazy experiences and stories into a series of books which were then turned into a series of films. He's a great story teller- and his appeal is probably on par with a writer like Vonnegut or a storyteller like Garrison Keillor...

-V

 

[Shane Gralaw]

I still have some hope. If he committed suicide, there is a greater likelihood he would have been found by now. Let's hope I'm right on this one...

 

[Joe Szott]

Are there no updates on what happened to SG? Seems like the worst case scenarios are looking more and more probable.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

yahoo story
looks like we know where he is now. :frowning:

CJ