Monologuist, actor and novelist Spalding Gray was born June 5, 1941 in Barrington, Rhode Island; after co-founding the experimental theatrical company the Wooster Group in 1977, he completed his first major monologue, Sex and Death to the Age 14, performing the piece throughout the U.S. and Europe. His work off-Broadway and in films helped him land a small role in Roland Joffe's 1984 feature The Killing Fields, an experience which became the basis of Gray's breakthrough piece Swimming to Cambodia; originally running four hours in length, the monologue was edited to a mere 80 minutes when in 1987 it reached theatres as a film directed by Jonathan Demme. 1991's Monster in a Box, directed by Nick Broomfield, concerned Gray's attempts to complete his epic novel Impossible Vacation, published the following year; a third feature film, the Steven Soderbergh-helmed Gray's Anatomy, followed in 1996. The compact disc edition of his monologue It's a Slippery Slope appeared two years later. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide