Ray Smith (actor)


Ray Smith was a Welsh actor.

Early life

Smith was born in Trealaw in the Rhondda Valley, and lived his early years on Ynyscynon Road, but lived for most of his adult life in Dinas Powys. He became interested in acting while he was at school, and was determined not to become a miner like his father, who died in a pit accident when Smith was only three years old.
After leaving school Smith became a builder's labourer. Following National Service in the army, he began acting professionally at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Cardiff, then joined the Swansea Grand Theatre as an assistant stage manager. He later moved to London, where he spent a year unemployed before obtaining a part in a play about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

Television career

Smith made his television debut in Shadows of Heroes in 1959, and then his appearances in series such as Z-Cars and A Family at War made him known to the public. He also appeared as Detective Inspector Percy Firbank in Public Eye, a role he started playing in 1971. Two years later came one of his most famous roles, as George Barraclough in Sam, in a Granada Television drama series set in northern England.
In 1973, Smith provided the voice-over for the British Transport Film "Britania - A Bridge", a film about the redevelopment and reconstruction of the Britania Railway Bridge between Anglesey and the Mainland. The Bridge had been damaged by a fire in 1970, it was reconstructed over the course of 3 years to incorporate a new 'double-deck', incorporating both road and rail crossings.

Later years

Ray Smith died in December 1991 at the age of 55 in the lounge of Llandough Hospital after a major heart attack. He had been shooting one of his last scenes in the television adaptation of Kingsley Amis's novel The Old Devils when he was taken ill on location in Newport. An onscreen credit dedicated the series The Old Devils to his memory, and his performance in it won him a posthumous BAFTA Cymru Award in 1993.
His son was the musician Huw Justin Smith, better known as Pepsi Tate.

TV roles and filmography

Nick of the River Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre The House Under the Water The Terrorists Ben Casey No Hiding Place Tomorrow at Ten The Painted Smile Mystery Submarine Suspense Murder Can Be Deadly The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling Ring Out an Alibi Moulded in Earth Z-Cars Candidate for Murder Softly, Softly Callan The Informer The Wednesday Play Half Hour Story Company of Five Special Branch Detectives Saturday Night Theatre A Family at War Shadows of Fear Man at the Top Public Eye Made Country Matters Jackanory Colditz The Adventures of Black Beauty New Scotland Yard Under Milk Wood The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes Sam King Lear The Main Chance Thriller Crown Court Madame Bovary The Hanged Man How Green Was My Valley Hunter's Walk Operation Daybreak Bill Brand Little Lord Fauntleroy Rogue Male Rooms 1990 Play for Today The Sailor's Return The Mill on the Floss The Hills of Heaven Enemy at the Door Target The Beast Juliet Bravo Masada The Life and Times of David Lloyd George Plays for Pleasure Maybury We'll Meet Again The Citadel Struggle Shades of Darkness Dempsey and Makepeace King Lear Three for the Road The District Nurse Babylon Bypassed