His depression escalated in recent years, exacerbated by a major car crash in 2001 during a vacation in Ireland. The accident also left him in physical pain.

I just wanted to comment on some news that happened this week.



Yes, unfortunately, it was confirmed... Spalding Gray had in fact been successful in his attempt to take his own life.

NEW YORK - Spalding Gray, the monologuist with a swath of silver hair and an ability to lay bare his soul in a soft, New England-flecked accent, didn't believe he was a great extrovert. “People want to have me to dinner,” he told The Associated Press in 1997. “I’m not Mr. Quick. I'm not a great social satirist. I need time to absorb life. I spend a lot of time mulling, cogitating.”

How very, very sad.

...though he embodied the stereotype of the self-absorbed New Yorker - looking at the world through the lens of one who had known intensive psychotherapy, fad diets and mind-expanding drugs - his pursuit of a story had a degree of selflessness that often put the amiable, all-too-accessible Gray in harm’s way.

and...

For his 60th birthday, Russo took Gray to Ireland. They were driving back from dinner when a van crashed into their rental car, leaving Gray with a cracked skull, a broken hip and nerve damage to one foot.

After he returned to the U.S. he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and placed on a potent array of drugs.

He attempted suicide a number of times. In 2002 he nearly jumped off a bridge in Long Island, where he had recently moved with his family. He later spent a month in a Connecticut psychiatric hospital. In September, he phoned his wife to say he wanted to jump off the Staten Island ferry, but police were alerted and removed him before he could carry out his plan.