Ray Smith

Ray Smith 1 May 1936 15 December 1991 was a Welsh actor who played the toughtalking 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 BBCs 1975 adaptation of How Green Was My Valley a touching performance given that Smiths 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