CNN and other sites are reporting that Spalding Gray has been reported missing. Grays’ wife filed a police report on Sunday night.
Gray has long suffered from depression and his brother, Rockwell, was quoted as saying Gray was depressed over the holidays. BTW, don’t you love a family with kids named Spalding and Rockwell?
Anyway, I hope that this is nothing serious and is just some strange adventure that will appear in his next one man show. Whenever I have been depressed myself, watching Swimming to Cambodia or Monster in a Box has alway been a surefire cure. I guess that Gray doesn’t have anything to chase his blues away.
Like I said, I really hope that this is nothing, but a small part of me fears the worst.
Listening to a monologue by Spalding Gray is one of the few pleasures of my life. It’s a shame when certain entertainers give so much joy to others and receive so little in return.
To say I am not a big fan of his would be an understatement.
However, I certainly don’t wish him the worst.
I seem to recall flipping through the channels not all that long ago and caught a short segment about him and his battle with depression…I even recall him mentioning he once went to a bridge and was considering jumping off. Again, my recollection of this interview/news clip is foggy, but as soon as I read the title of this thread, that comment he made entered my mind.
Dmark, shortly before he considered the bridge, he took his sailboat out and went so far as to jump off it, although he changed his mind and climbed back aboard.
God, I hope he’s just having a good binge somewhere.
Always liked him (indeed, have a bit of a crush on him). Sincerely hope this is a “Stephen Fry” and not a “John Bowers.”
Despite this release from the press: “the police released a description of what he was wearing when he was last seen—a gray jacket with a blue scarf, a brown sweater, black corduroy pants and brown shoes,” I assure you I had nothing to do with his disappearance.
I heard this yesterday, and was very sad to hear it.
I’m an admirer of his, and went to great lengths to secure European standard VHS tapes of Swimming to Cambodia and Monster in a Box. I sincerely hope he’s OK and just getting over what he needs to get over. I’m also saddened that the roots of his depression began in Ireland.
I’ve seen him at least 4 times live and hope to again in the future. But the signs don’t seem good.
I remember a part of one of his monologues where he was looking for something to do while feeling a little blue over the holidays so he decided to volunteer for a suicide hotline. They make you take some screening test beforehand. They took him aside and told him to seek out immediate psychiatric help.
Phew. I thought I was gonna get a Pit thread for that . . .
Problem with a “sighting” is that 75% of the men in NY look like Spaulding Gray.
I do hope he’s in a funk somewhere, maybe holed up in a shelter or a bar or something. In this weather, he wouldn’t even last a night on the street. I must say, this is awfully hard cheese on his family—if you are going to kill yourself, why do so in a way that would cause your family days and days of agony and worry looking for you and wondering where you are?
My WAG - other than people who hang themselves so that they don’t leave a mess of blood for somebody to clean up, persons who commit suicide don’t appear to have the interests of other people in their mind at all.
Pardon my ignorance- I catch the John Bowers ref, but did Stephen Fry once jump off of a bridge? (I know he had a boating accident at Cambridge and considered suicide when he was sentenced to prison, but I don’t know that much else about him outside his work.)
A few years ago, Stephen Fry disappeared and worried the hell out of his friends, who instigated a nationwide search for him. He turned up, said, “oops, sorry, I was having an Episode,” and that was the end of it.
. . . and I thought I was going to have to explain “John Bowers!” . . .
The talented Mr Fry did a runner from his dressing room just before he was meant to appear on stage in a West End play. He went to Belgium. He has had a few emotional problems in the past - as evidenced by his jail term, which he was sentenced to becuase he stole someone’s credit card and went on a spree all round England. I believe he suffers from bipolar disorder. Biography.
