Ray Smith
Birthday: Born in 1936-05-01 in Trealaw, Glamorgan, Wales, UK
Deathday: 1991-12-15
Ray Smith (1 May 1936 – 15 December 1991) was a Welsh actor who played the tough-talking police chief, Detective Superintendent Gordon Spikings, in the television series Dempsey and Makepeace. He was the first actor to play Brother Cadfael for BBC radio, and played a memorable Dai Bando in the BBC's 1975 adaptation of How Green Was My Valley - a touching performance given that Smith;s own father was a miner killed in a pit accident when Smith was just three years old. His final role work was in the TV adaptation of Kingsley Amis' novel, The Old Devils. He died just before filming concluded at the age of 55 from a massive heart attack and won the posthumous BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actor in 1992.
TV Credits
Thriller
Character: Ben Tamplin
Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits....
Colditz
Character: Hans Hugenberg
Colditz is a British television series co-produced by the BBC and Universal Studios and screened between 1972 and 1974. The series deals with Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle when designated Oflag IV-C during World War II, and their many attempts to escape captivity, as well as the relationships formed between the various nationalities and their German captors....
Dempsey and Makepeace
Character: Spikings
Dempsey and Makepeace is a British television crime drama made by London Weekend Television for ITV, created and produced by Ranald Graham. The leading roles were played by Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber, who later married each other on 18 November 1989. The series combined elements of previous series such as the mis-matching of British and American crime-fighters from different classes as seen in The Persuaders! and the action of The Professionals....
Crown Court
Character:
Crown Court is an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984....
Callan
Character:
Callan is the title of a British television series set in the murky world of espionage. Originally produced by ABC Weekend Television and later Thames Television, it was aired on the ITV network over four seasons spread out between 1967 and 1972. The series starred Edward Woodward as David Callan, a reluctant professional killer for a shadowy branch of the British Government's intelligence services known as 'the Section'....
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
Character: Chief prison officer
Adaptations of mystery stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's contemporary rivals in the genre....
No Hiding Place
Character:
No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart....
1990
Character:
The series is set in a dystopian future in which Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Department of Public Control (PCD), a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding roughshod over the population's civil liberties. Edward Woodward plays Jim Kyle, a journalist on the last independent newspaper called The Star, who turns renegade and begins to fight the PCD covertly. The officials of the PCD, in turn, try to provide proof of Kyle's subversive activities....
We'll Meet Again
Character:
It's 1943 and the American Air Force has come to Market Weatherby, a small East Anglian town. The war weary British and the brash American GIs sometimes clash, but friendships are also forged....
How Green Was My Valley
Character: Dai Bando
Life is harsh but uncomplicated and happy for the Morgan family in their coal mining village in the Rhondda Valleys. But as the 20th century approaches, the younger generation is restless....
Shadows of Fear
Character: German
Anthology series in which characters find themselves in weird and scary situations. Not evoked by the supernatural but by other people....
Madame Bovary
Character: Homais
Francesca Annis and Tom Conti star in this acclaimed UK miniseries adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's classic tale of one woman's attempts to mold her own unfulfilling life in the shape of her favorite romantic novels. ...
The Company of Five
Character:
...
The Main Chance
Character: Joe Holroyd
The Main Chance was a British television series which first aired on ITV between 1969,1970,1972 and 1975. A drama, it depicts the sudden transformation in the life of solicitor David Main who relocates from London to Leeds....
Public Eye
Character: Det. Insp. Percy Firbank
Public Eye is a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975. It was produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four series. The series depicted the investigations and cases handled by the unglamorous enquiry agent Frank Marker, an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins. In the words of an ABC trailer for the third series: "Marker isn't a glamorous detective and he doesn't get glamorous cases—he doesn't even get glamorous ...
Sam
Character: George Barraclough
Sam is a drama set in the coalfields of Yorkshire in the inter-war period....
Bill Brand
Character: Moores
Following the death of the sitting Labour Party Member of Parliament, Bill Brand is selected as Labour candidate for a Lancashire textile constituency....
The Hanged Man
Character: Josef Milcjek
After surviving a series of attempts on his life, successful businessman Lew Burnett decides to remain "dead" after the most recent one so he can go undercover and find out which of his close friends and business associates want him dead....
Public Eye
Character: Firbank
Public Eye is a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975. It was produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four series. The series depicted the investigations and cases handled by the unglamorous enquiry agent Frank Marker, an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins. In the words of an ABC trailer for the third series: "Marker isn't a glamorous detective and he doesn't get glamorous cases—he doesn't even get glamorous ...
Public Eye
Character: Percy Firbank
Public Eye is a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975. It was produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four series. The series depicted the investigations and cases handled by the unglamorous enquiry agent Frank Marker, an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins. In the words of an ABC trailer for the third series: "Marker isn't a glamorous detective and he doesn't get glamorous cases—he doesn't even get glamorous ...
Enemy at the Door
Character: John Weston
Enemy At The Door is a British television drama series made by London Weekend Television for ITV. The series was shown between 1978 and 1980 and dealt with the German occupation of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, during the Second World War. The programme generated a certain amount of criticism in Guernsey, particularly for being obviously filmed on Jersey despite being ostensibly set on Guernsey. The series also marked the TV debut of Anthony Head as a member of the island resistance. The...
Movie Credits
Mucking Out
Character: Thomas Loftus
'I'm an expert on pigs now. How many people can claim they've castrated 1.000 baby pigs? Not many.' Brian is enthusiastic about his new job, but Thomas has seen it all before....
The Sailor's Return
Character: Fred Leake
Based on the 1925 novel The Sailor's Return by David Garnett. A sailor returns to his hometown to open a pub bringing with him his new black wife. Very quickly they find themselves ostracised by the community....
The Painted Smile
Character: Glynn
Jo and Mark are working the "outraged husband" racket when they fall foul of the sinister Kleinie.......
Rogue Male
Character: Fisherman
In 1939, Sir Robert Thorndyke takes aim at Adolf Hitler with a high powered rifle, but the shot misses its mark. Captured and tortured by the Gestapo and left for dead, Sir Robert makes his way back to England where he discovers the Gestapo has followed him. Knowing that his government would turn him over to German authorities, Sir Robert goes underground in his battle with his pursuers....
The Informers
Character: Police Sergeant (uncredited)
When the detective in charge of investigating a series of bank robberies starts to get too close to the culprits, they set up a blackmail scheme to warn him off. But when the crooks begin to fall out with each other, the police learn the truth....
King Lear
Character: Kent
When England's aging King Lear renounces his throne to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, treachery, madness and murder soon follow. After banishing Cordelia, his most loyal daughter, Lear is betrayed and cast out by her elder sisters Regan and Goneril. Meanwhile, evil brews at the Gloucester castle as Edgar falls victim to his brother's deception. As battle lines are drawn and backs are stabbed, Lear rages against a fearsome storm. Can a man undo his wrongs? Will Cordelia be saved? O...
Bewitched
Character: Sylvester Brand
The story is set in a small English coastal town, around the turn of the century. A young woman, thought by many in the village to be a witch, dies suddenly one day. Not long after she's buried, the villagers begin to see her walking around the area and especially along the shoreline. The village minister begins to look into her life and her death, hoping to lay the spirit to rest....
Shaggy Dog
Character: Mr Johnson
A no-nonsense businessman, Mr. Wilkie, is interviewed for a position with a top-of-the-line hotel chain corporation. During the interview, Wilkie attempts to complete a shaggy-dog story. His frustrations lead to a total breakdown. He suddenly snaps and pulls a gun on the interviewers....
The Trial of Klaus Barbie
Character: Margaine
Decades after the end of World War II, escaped war criminal Klaus Barbie is brought to justice....
Operation: Daybreak
Character: Hájek
Czechoslovakia, 1942. Three brave Czech patriots risk everything to rid their country of its brutal Nazi leader, SS-General Reinhard Heydrich....
The Life and Times of David Lloyd George
Character: Aneurin Bevan
The Life and Times of David Lloyd George charts the life of the controversial Liberal politician with Philip Madoc in the titular role. The title theme, Chi Mai, was by Ennio Morricone...
Made
Character: Policeman
This compelling emotional drama stars Carol White as a young single mother who finds herself caught between two people – a local priest and a folk singer – each of whom wants to convert her to his own worldview. An elegy to a younger generation looking for something to believe in, Made co-stars hugely influential folk-rock musician Roy Harper in his screen debut. Produced by Joseph Janni – who previously made the astonishingly successful Poor Cow with White – directed by The Long Good Friday's J...
Under Milk Wood
Character: Mr Waldo
The delightful if peculiar story of a day in the life of a small, Welsh fishing village called "Llareggub" in which we meet a host of curious characters (and ghosts) through the 'eyes' of Blind Captain Cat....
Tomorrow at Ten
Character: Mr. Briggs
A British policeman (John Gregson) tries to find a rich man's (Alec Clunes) son before a kidnapper's (Robert Shaw) time bomb blows....
The Mayor's Charity
Character: Charlie Harris
Olive Major is determined that her year of office as Mayor will be a happy and successful one. But her appointment of Ex-Warrant Officer Higham as Attendant and Mace-bearer causes the storm-clouds to gather over Medburgh Town Hall....
The Next Voice You See
Character: Ben Tamplin
An American jazz pianist, blinded in a London bank robbery ten years before, makes his first return appearance in England at an engangement party where he believes he hears the voice of the gunman who cost him his sight....
The Old Devils
Character: Charlie Norris
An adaptation of the novel by Kingsley Amis about a group of university friends reunited in retirement. Alun Weaver has found success as a celebrated London-based writer. After returning home to Wales with his alluring wife Rhiannon he reunites with old friends who chose to remain in the valleys. Long dormant romance are rekindled and rivalries resurrected in this turbulent story of ageing, friendship, lust, nostalgia and nationalism....