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.
Filmography
Operation: Daybreak
as Hájek
Under Milk Wood
as Mr Waldo
Rogue Male
as Fisherman
Tomorrow at Ten
as Mr. Briggs
The Informers
as Police Sergeant (uncredited)
The Painted Smile
as Glynn
The Sailor's Return
as Fred Leake
King Lear
as Kent
Shaggy Dog
as Mr Johnson
Made
as Policeman
The Next Voice You See
as Ben Tamplin
Mrs. Lawrence Will Look After It
as Stanley Maxwell
The Mayor's Charity
as Charlie Harris
Mucking Out
as Thomas Loftus
Britannia: A Bridge
as Narrator (Voice)
Bewitched
as Sylvester Brand
The Trial of Klaus Barbie
as Margaine
The Life and Times of David Lloyd George
as Aneurin Bevan
The Old Devils
as Charlie Norris