Ray Smith

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. 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.