Ray Smith (actor)

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.

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.[1][4] He also appeared as Detective Inspector Percy Firbank in Public Eye, a role he started playing in 1971.[5] 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.[6]

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.[7] An onscreen credit dedicated the series The Old Devils to his memory, and his performance in it won him a posthumous BAFTA Cymru Award (Best Actor) in 1993.[8]

His son was the musician Huw Justin Smith, better known as Pepsi Tate.[9]

• Anthony and Deborah Hayward TV Unforgettables - Over 250 Legends of the Small Screen, Guinness, 1993

• Ray Smith at IMDb