MONSTER OUTSIDE THE BOX:

Spalding Gray, 62, Actor and Monologuist, Is Confirmed Dead (SHAILA K. DEWAN and JESSE McKINLEY, 3/09/04, NY Times)

A body that surfaced in the East River on Sunday was identified by the city medical examiner yesterday as that of Spalding Gray, the confessional monologuist and actor who disappeared two months ago.

The cause of death had not yet been determined, but the police were investigating reports that Mr. Gray, who had a history of depression, had committed suicide by jumping off the Staten Island ferry, said Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department.

Mr. Gray, 62, practiced the art of storytelling with a quiet mania, transforming his travels, fascinations and traumas into such acclaimed works as "Swimming to Cambodia" and "Monster in a Box." He almost always appeared seated behind a simple desk, with a glass of water and some notes.

The news of his death ended a painful limbo for Mr. Gray's friends and family, during which they answered calls from fans and followed up on reported sightings, including one at a diner in New Jersey. There seemed to be little hope: the police had traced one of Mr. Gray's final calls to a pay phone at the ferry terminal, and he had previously threatened to jump off a ferry. But for his wife, Kathleen Russo, their two young sons and Mr. Gray's stepdaughter, there had been no final answer.

The suspense grew more agonizing in its final hours, when the family received a call on Sunday night from an Associated Press reporter who told her a body had washed up near Greenpoint in Brooklyn wearing black corduroy pants. That was what Mr. Gray had been wearing when he was last seen on Jan. 10. At that point, Ms. Russo had not yet heard from the police, a friend of the family said.

Spalding Gray's older brother, Rockwell Gray, said he had been holding out hope that his brother would be found alive until he talked with Ms. Russo early yesterday, before the medical examiner's findings were announced. "She told me it seemed almost certain it was his body they had found," said Mr. Gray, an English professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Many knew that Spalding Gray, who spoke publicly of infidelity, depression and a sometimes pained conscience, had his fair share of emotional turmoil. But by the late 1990's, it seemed he had begun wanting to put that behind him. He had safely passed the age, 52, at which his mother had killed herself. He had told countless audiences of surviving near-drowning, "psychic surgery," claustrophobic attacks and what he described as the inescapable letdown of real life. But as he eventually settled into a domestic bliss he had once resisted — fatherhood, a home on Long Island, daily yoga — darkness and cynicism had retreated, at least somewhat, from his performances.

While he was on vacation in Ireland in 2001, though, a devastating car accident fractured his skull and crushed his hip, sending Mr. Gray into a profound depression.

One of the worst manifestations of multiculturalism/political correctness is the insistence that the "right" of the mentally ill to be "free" outweighs our obligation to them. We see the worst effects in the current gay marriage dispute, but likewise in things like letting the self-destructive wander the streets.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 9, 2004 8:19 AM