On May 1st 1936 actor Ray Smith was born in Trealaw.

The valley born actor performed in many Tv programmes which included playing tough talking Chief Superintendent Gordon Spikings in “Dempsey and Makepeace” which co starred Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber and which was screened in 1985/1986.

Smith spent his early years in Trealaw before moving to Dinas Powys.

At the age of three his father was killed in a mining accident and while at school he became interested in acting and was determined not to end up working underground in a colliery.

After leaving school he found a job as a builder’s labourer before being called up for National Service in the Army.

He began acting professionally at the Prince of Wales theatre in Cardiff before joining the Swansea Grand Theatre as an assistant stage manager.

His early TV acting parts were in “Z Cars”, “A Family at War” and “Callan” while one of his notable roles was as George Barraclough in “Sam”, a Granada Television drama series set in northern England.

He was the first actor to play Brother Cadfael for BBC radio, and played a memorable part as Dai Bando in the BBC’s 1975 adaptation of “How Green Was My Valley”.

Smith also 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.

Smith was also a political activist and a member of Plaid Cymru and in the 1950s he worked as the Party’s southern organiser.

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 won him a posthumous BAFTA Cymru Award (Best Actor) in 1993.