Holding out hope doesn't always work.

If you've never had a chance to experience Spalding Gray's performance, do yourself a favor and rent Swimming to Cambodia. He was truly an original talent. It will be a long time before someone like him comes along again.

An excerpt of the news item from the AP today follows...

Spalding Gray's Body Found in East River

By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer
March 8, 2004, 4:01 pm

NEW YORK - Actor-writer Spalding Gray, who laid bare his life in a series of acclaimed monologues like "Swimming to Cambodia" while scoring big-screen success in "Kate and Leopold" and "The Paper," was confirmed dead on Monday.

The body of Gray, 62, was pulled out of the East River off Greenpoint, Brooklyn, on Sunday, two months after he walked out of his Manhattan apartment and disappeared.

The city medical examiner confirmed through dental records and X-rays on Monday that it was Gray's body. The cause of his death was still under investigation, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner.

Throughout his disappearance, his wife, Kathleen Russo, had held out scant hope that he might still be alive.

"Everyone that looks like him from behind, I go up and check to make sure it's not him," Russo said in a phone interview with The Associated Press about a week ago. "If someone calls and hangs up, I always do star-69. You're always thinking, 'maybe.'"

Gray, whose riveting live performances generally featured only a desk and a glass of water as props, was reported missing by Russo on Jan. 11.

His greatest success was his Obie-winning monologue "Swimming to Cambodia," which recounted in part his movie role opposite Sam Waterston (news) in "The Killing Fields." The monologue, developed over two years of performance, became a film directed by Jonathan Demme.

But Gray's life in recent years was marred by tragedy and depression.

A horrific head-on car crash during a 2001 vacation in Ireland left him disheartened and in poor health, and he tried jumping from a bridge near his Long Island home in October 2002.

He was twice hospitalized for depression after the crash, and his suicide attempt canceled the run of a new solo piece, "Black Spot."