Fame Hilite: Welsh actor from Trealaw, Rhondda Valley, best known for Public Eye and Dempsey and Makepeace.
Death info: Ray died on the 15th of December, 1991.
Birth info: Born 1st May 1936, Trealaw, Rhondda Valley, Wales.
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Smith's final role, in the BBC serial 'The Old Devils', became a poignant farewell for Welsh television audiences: the production was dedicated to his memory after his sudden death during filming, and it went on to earn him a posthumous BAFTA Cymru Award.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Played Detective Inspector Percy Firbank in Public Eye (1971-1975)
Career Highlight: Played Chief Superintendent Gordon Spikings in Dempsey and Makepeace (1985-1986)
Career Highlight: Appeared in the 1972 television film of Under Milk Wood
Career Highlight: Won a posthumous BAFTA Cymru Best Actor award for The Old Devils, 1993
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Connection: Born in Trealaw, in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales, and lived most of his adult life in Dinas Powys, South Wales.
Comment By: wwrandom , This Comment: A very underrated Welsh actor. His untimely death has robbed the nation of one of its greats!
Ray Smith was born Raymond Smith on 1st May 1936 in Trealaw, in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales, and spent his early years on Ynyscynon Road. His father, a coal miner, died in a pit accident when Smith was only three years old, and Smith himself worked as a builder's labourer before completing National Service in the army.
Smith began acting professionally at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Cardiff, later working as an assistant stage manager at the Swansea Grand Theatre before moving to London. He made his television...
Rhiannon Hale
Musician, accompanist for the 'Treorchy Male Choir' (1998-2002) 'Bridgend Male Choir' - (2003 to present day).
Musical director - 'Ynysybwl Ladies Choir' ( 2002 to present day) freelance solo accompanist to many well known singer's.
Ron Berry
Author of many welsh books. His first offering was 'Hunter and Hunted' back in 1960 which he followed with 'Travelling Loaded' three years later.
Fame Hilite: Born in Ferndale, Rhondda, a wild child who chose acting over the pit and became one of the finest British screen actors of his generation. Close friend of Richard Burton. Star and producer of Zulu. Knighted by Harold Wilson in 1976
Death info: Stanley Baker died of lung cancer on 28 June 1976 in Malaga, Spain, aged 48 just weeks after receiving his knighthood. His ashes were interred in Ferndale, the mining community of his birth
Birth info: Born 28 February 1928 at 32 Albany Street, Ferndale, Rhondda Fach, Glamorganshire
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The crowning achievement of Baker's career was Zulu (1964) which he not only starred in as Lieutenant John Chard RE, the Royal Engineer who commanded the defence of Rorke's Drift, but produced alongside director Cy Endfield. It was Baker's film in every sense. He cast the unknown Michael Caine in his first major screen role. He secured the participation of Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi who afterwards sent a floral wreath to Baker's funeral describing him as "the most decent white man I have ever met." Baker himself was appalled to learn that the Zulu warriors who had taken part in the filming were banned from seeing the finished film under apartheid's Publications Control Board.
He turned down the role of James Bond. He appeared in Joseph Losey's Accident (1967) with Dirk Bogarde one of his finest dramatic performances. His final BBC role, as the patriarchal Gwilym in Elaine Morgan's adaptation of How Green Was My Valley (1975), was broadcast shortly before he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Prime Minister Harold Wilson a close personal friend and fellow socialist nominated Baker for his knighthood in the 1976 resignation honours. The knighthood was gazetted in May 1976. Stanley Baker died in Malaga six weeks later, aged 48. His ashes were brought home to Ferndale. "Whenever I go there," he said of the terraced house where he grew up, "I look at the two down and three up and I think, that's me... that's what I am."
Public Video Title A : Zulu (1964) - Official Trailer
Public Video Title B: The Guns of Navarone (1961) - Official Trailer
Public Video Title C: Stanley Baker - A Welsh Acting Legend
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Spotted at fourteen by an Ealing Studios talent scout -- cast in Undercover (1943)
Career Highlight: Appeared alongside Richard Burton in The Druid's Rest (West End, 1943) -- a friendship forged for life
Career Highlight: BAFTA nomination for Best British Actor for Yesterday's Enemy (1959)
Career Highlight: The Guns of Navarone (1961) -- international breakthrough alongside Gregory Peck and David Niven
Career Highlight: Star and producer of Zulu (1964) -- cast Michael Caine in his first major screen role
Career Highlight: Turned down the role of James Bond
Career Highlight: Knighted by Harold Wilson in May 1976 -- died in Malaga six weeks later, aged 48
Connection: Born and raised in Ferndale, Rhondda Fach, Welsh through and through
Product Name: Zulu [DVD] (1964) , Product Description: Stanley Baker stars as Lieutenant John Chard RE in the film he produced the epic retelling of the defence of Rorke's Drift. Michael Caine's first major screen role. One of the greatest British war films ever made. , Product Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000059H27?tag=thefamouswelshwe-21, Product Store: Amazon UK , Product Image:
Product Name: Checkpoint [DVD] , Product Type: Movie , Product Description: Digitally remastered and released on DVD for the First time! Stanley Baker's O'Donovan is sent to steal the plans of a rival company's racing car designs, to ensure his employers win the competition. However, when opening a safe containing the plans, he triggers an alarm leading to a gun battle where he kills a number of people. , Product Link: https://amzn.to/4f2lwj7, Product Store: Amazon UK , Product Image:
Product Name: The Guns of Navarone [DVD] (1961) , Product Type: Movie , Product Description: Baker plays the brooding, battle-fatigued Brown alongside Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn in Alistair MacLean's classic wartime adventure. One of the most exciting ensemble war films ever made. , Product Link: https://amzn.to/4fd33AJ, Product Store: Amazon UK , Product Image:
Product Name: The Good Die Young [DVD] , Product Type: Movie , Product Description: Powerful British film noir in which an amoral, psychotic playboy incites three men who are down on their luck to commit a mail van robbery, which goes badly wrong. , Product Link: https://amzn.to/4fcUFkD, Product Store: Amazon UK , Product Image:
William Stanley Baker was born on 28 February 1928 at 32 Albany Street, Ferndale, in the Rhondda Fach valley of Glamorganshire the youngest of three children of John Henry Baker, a haulier and engineman, and his wife Elizabeth Louisa. He grew up what he called a self-declared wild child, ducking school whenever he could, fighting, playing football. His father lost a leg in a pit accident underground, and the young Stanley resolved early that the mines; his idea of hell, would never claim him. He saw two ways out: boxing...
Fame Hilite: Recorded a Hendrix-inspired guitar version of the Welsh national anthem with the Geraint Jarman band (1978), one of its most famous renditions.
Death info: Died 19 June 2005, aged 54, following a house fire in Canton, Cardiff; ruled accidental death at inquest.
Birth info: Born Robert Gwilliam, 10 September 1950, Llwynypia, Rhondda Valley, Wales.
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During the 1980s Tich worked as a session guitarist for the BBC and also played charango with the South American ensemble Los Ionisos. He later played in the Cardiff three-piece Mrs Hugget from 2000 until his death in 2005, staying active on the local scene right up to the end of his life.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: 1969: Played the Croeso '69 Blues Festival, Abergavenny, alongside Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull
Career Highlight: 1978: Recorded Hendrix-style Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau with the Geraint Jarman band
Career Highlight: 1989: Formed the Superclarks with Burke Shelley of Budgie
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Connection: Born and raised in Llwynypia, in the Rhondda Valley.
Tich Gwilym, born Robert Gwilliam on 10 September 1950 in Llwynypia in the Rhondda Valley, was a Welsh rock guitarist widely regarded by his peers as one of the finest players Wales ever produced. He came up through the South Wales club circuit of the late 1960s with the band Kimla Taz, sharing a bill with Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull at the Croeso '69 Blues Festival in Abergavenny, before spending the 1970s playing with bands including Memphis Bend, Red Beans & Rice and Racing Cars.
Tich found lasting fame as...
