Refugee from Waspdom

Spalding Gray in about 1980.

“I was raised as an upper-class WASP in New England, and there was this old tradition there that everyone would simply be guided into the right way after Ivy League college and onward and upward. And it rejected me, I rejected it, and I ended up as a kind of refugee, really.’’

Spalding Gray (1941-2004), American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist. He grew up in Barrington. He died by suicide.

A WASP 'refugee'

Spalding Gray in about 1980

The Congregational church in the affluent town of Barrington, R.I.

“I was raised as an upper-class WASP in New England, and there was this old tradition there that everyone would simply be guided into the right way after Ivy League college and onward and upward. And it rejected me, I rejected it, and I ended up as a kind of refugee, really.’

— Spalding Gray (1941-2004), a writer and actor who grew up in Barrington, R.I., where many of his autobiographical stories are based. He died an apparent suicide after jumping into the East River in New York City.

He was particularly famous for his monologues, delivered in a dry , upper-crust New England voice and with a poker face.