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 debut in 1959, and became a familiar face on British television over the following three decades, appearing in 'Z-Cars', 'Callan', 'A Family at War' and the 1972 television film of Dylan Thomas's 'Under Milk Wood'. From 1971 he played Detective Inspector Percy Firbank in the long-running series 'Public Eye', and from 1985 to 1986 he starred as Chief Superintendent Gordon Spikings in 'Dempsey and Makepeace'. He also appeared in 'We'll Meet Again', 'How Green Was My Valley' and 'Sam'.
Smith lived for most of his adult life in Dinas Powys, South Wales. He died suddenly of a heart attack on 15th December 1991, aged 55, at Llandough Hospital, having been taken ill while filming the television adaptation of Kingsley Amis's novel 'The Old Devils' on location in Newport. The series was dedicated to his memory, and his performance in it earned him a posthumous BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actor in 1993.
His son, Huw Justin Smith, became known as a musician under the stage name Pepsi Tate.