Veteran actor dies after fall

Ray Barrett was best known for voicing The Thunderbirds...

13:49 09 September 2009

Australian actor Ray Barrett, whose numerous UK TV roles included the voices of several Thunderbird puppets, has died aged 82.

The veteran actor's last film role was as a character called Ramsden in director Baz Luhrmann's epic movie 'Australia', released last year.

His agent Jane Cameron stated that Barrett died in hospital on Tuesday after a fall at his home at Gold Coast city in Queensland state. He suffered from chronic low blood pressure which brings on the falls.

Cameron said: "He was an extraordinarily good actor who loved doing it. 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 before landing a high-profile role in the long-running British television series 'The Troubleshooters' in the 1960s.

Barrett did a wide range of acting work in the United Kingdom for almost 20 years before he returned to Australia in the mid-1970s.

He received one of Australia's highest acting awards, an Australian Film Industry Award for Best Supporting Actor. He won 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.