451: Ray Barrett

Australian actor Ray Barrett dies at 82

(AP) – 1 hour ago

BRISBANE, Australia — Veteran Australian actor Ray Barrett, who became a star of British television in the 1960s, has died, his agent said Wednesday. He was 82.

Barrett's last film role was as the character Ramsden in director Baz Luhrmann's movie "Australia," released last year.

His Sydney agent Jane Cameron said Barrett died in hospital Tuesday after a fall at his home at Gold Coast city in Queensland state.

"He was an extraordinarily good actor who loved doing it," Cameron said. "He was such a skilled actor that he was always a very solid presence on the screen."

Raymond Charles Barrett was born in the Queensland capital Brisbane on May 2, 1927. He moved to England in the late 1950s and starred in the long-running British television series "The Troubleshooters" in the 1960s.

Cameron said Barrett did a wide range of acting work in the United Kingdom for almost 20 years, including voices for the iconic puppet television series "Thunderbirds," before he returned to Australia in the mid-1970s.

In Australia, he became a prominent player in a rejuvenated Australian film industry. He received one of Australia's greatest acting accolades, an Australian Film Industry Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role in director Fred Schepisi's 1978 film "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith."

Barrett is survived by his third wife, Gaye, a daughter from his first marriage, Suellen, and two sons from his second marriage, Reg and John.

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