Movie Writer Spalding Gray Missing

New York Post ^ | January 13, 2004 | By MURRAY WEISS and MARSHA KRANES

[billorites]

Spalding Gray - the wry, anxiety-ridden movie monologist best known for the films "Swimming to Cambodia" and "Gray's Anatomy" - has been reported missing by his wife.

The 62-year-old writer-performer, a diagnosed manic depressive, was last seen late Saturday night at his TriBeCa home, law-enforcement sources said.

[LurkerNoMore!]

I never found that guy to be funny.

If you ever get the chance, watch the David Byrne film, True Stories.

[Focault's Pendulum]

I can't find confirmation anywhere yet on this statement by Savage.

Sometime earlier today...I heard a news report on WABC radio that a body had been found , (I think in a ditch) near relatives of Gray. It was a tie in to his disappearance...but no confirmation of anything.

[FormerACLUmember]

Head trauma commonly produces a wide variety of untreatable mood and impulse disorders.

[FormerACLUmember]

Yeah still no confirmation. Savage seemed so sure...

[William Terrell]

List of his work.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

He's great on The Nanny.

I loved it when Fran called him when he was drying his hair in the bathroom.

[oceanview]

word in NYC is that he jumped off the staten island ferry.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Did Spalding Gray Jump From Ferry?



By Robert Kahn and Pete Bowles
Staff Writers

January 14, 2004, 7:24 PM EST

Police Wednesday night continued their search for performance artist Spalding Gray, who was reported missing Sunday after failing to take a scheduled ski trip.

"The case is still actively being investigated, and he is still missing," said Sgt. Kevin Hayes, a spokesman for the New York City Police Department.

Meanwhile, Gray's family is fearful that the troubled writer-actor, who has twice attempted suicide in the past two years, may have jumped off the Staten Island Ferry, according to a family friend.

Sara Vass said Gray's wife, Kathleen Russo, had received a report from investigators that a Staten Island Ferry employee told police that he had seen Gray, or someone resembling him, riding the ferry late Friday. The worker told police that the man got off the ferry in Manhattan, Vass said.

"This leads the family to believe Spalding may have been making some sort of dry run," said Vass, who said she was speaking in behalf of Russo.

Saying that Gray in September had threatened to jump off the ferry before being stopped by a friend, Vass said: "The family is curious why the police are not looking in the river."

Hayes, when told of the family's concern over the reported siting of Gray, said: "All leads are being thoroughly investigated."

Gray, 62, best known for his "Swimming to Cambodia" monologue, had planned to fly to Colorado on Saturday but rescheduled the trip for Sunday after encountering problems with his connecting flight from Denver to Aspen.

Gray was last seen by family members leaving his SoHo apartment at 6:30 p.m. Saturday to meet an unidentified friend. When he had not returned home by midday Sunday, his wife contacted police.

"This is a huge and terrifying mystery," Vass said. "He's been depressed and has had a very difficult last three years. But he's been fighting mightily to get better, going from doctor to doctor for both physical and psychiatric help."

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc. | Article licensing and reprint options

[JoeSchem]

I've never understood why somebody would blow their brains out or jump off a bridge when its so much more fun to spend twenty years drinking yourself to death.

Since a lot more people die of alcoholism than blowing their brains out or jumping off bridges, yours apparently is the mainstream opinion.