Robin Ray
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:EngvarB Template:Infobox person Robin Ray (17 September 1934 – 29 November 1998) was an English broadcaster on radio and television, actor of stage and screen, and musician. The eldest son of the comedian Ted Ray, he was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was the school's chief technical instructor from 1961 to 1965.
Ray was the first chairman of the BBC Television panel programme Call My Bluff in the 1960s and regularly appeared on the BBC 2 evening quiz show Face the Music in the 1970s. He was the author of plays and books and was the music adviser to Classic FM Radio between 1988 and 1997 and artistic director for Performance Channel TV from 1996 to 1997.
Early lifeEdit
Born Robin Olden in Fulham, London on 17 September 1934, he was the eldest son of Charles Olden, later known as the comedian Ted Ray, and the dancer Dorothy Sybil Stevens.<ref name="odnb">Template:Cite ODNB</ref> His younger brother, Andrew, also became an actor.<ref name="odnb" /> At age 10, Ray received records of Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 from his father and briefly harboured aspirations of becoming a classical conductor.<ref name="DTObituary">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":0" />
From the age of 15,<ref name="LDP1970Profile">Template:Cite news</ref> he also wanted to become a concert pianist after an unsuccessful venture with the violin until he realised his lack of skill.<ref name="odnb" /><ref name=":0" /> Ray was taught at Highgate School in North London and decided to enrol at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) after his brother began working as an actor.<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref name="GuardianObit">Template:Cite news</ref> He did his national service in the Royal Army Service Corps and rose to the rank of second lieutenant.<ref name="odnb" />
CareerEdit
Ray performed one stand-up comedy routine at a West End club at the age of 21 but was unsuccessful.<ref name=":0" /> In January 1956, Ray made his television debut as the youngest member of a gang in the ITV crime play The Guv'nor,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> and performed in a Bob and Alf Pearson summer show in Bournemouth.<ref name="PresentRayIII">Template:Cite news</ref> He first appeared as a professional actor in a West End production of The Changeling at the Royal Court Theatre in 1960,<ref name="GuardianObit" /><ref name="Gifford">Template:Cite news</ref> just after graduating from RADA with a diploma in acting.<ref name="BoltonNews1980">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ray was understudy to Dudley Moore in Beyond the Fringe,<ref name="DTObituary" /> replacing Moore when the original cast went to the United States.<ref name=":0" /> He played small roles in the films I'm All Right Jack (1959) as a Young Chemist, a doctor in Doctor in Love (1960), a Flag Lieutenant in Watch Your Stern (1960), a seaman in Sink the Bismarck! (1960), an assistant manager in Carry On Constable (1960) and a TV floor manager in A Hard Day's Night (1964).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Ray was the chief technical instructor at RADA from 1961 until his resignation in 1965,<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref name="Gifford" /> in support of the resignation of the principal John Fernald due to internal politics at the school.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> The decision allowed Ray to return to broadcasting,<ref name=":1" /> and he was broadcaster of writer of more than 1,000 programmes for the BBC and commercial radio and television between 1966 and 1995.<ref name="WWWEntry" /> He went on to serve as associate director of the Meadow Brook Theater in Detroit, United States from 1965 to 1966.<ref name="WWWEntry">Template:Cite book</ref> Ray was a cast member of the 1963 BBC Television series Dig This Rhubarb.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Two years later, he was selected to be the first chairman of the new BBC panel show Call My Bluff,<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Gifford" /> and created the programme The Daring Young Men on the Black and White Keys on virtuoso pianists the following year.<ref name="DTObituary" />
Ray acted as the compere of the 1968 Associated-Rediffusion series Where Did That Come From? in which contestants were required to make a derivation of quotes or words.<ref name="DTObituary" /> He was the presenter of the 1968 television film Crazy World, Crazy People.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was the host of one series of the BBC 2 programme Music Now from 1969 to 1970.<ref name="LDP1970Profile" /> He was a regular panel member on the BBC 2 evening music quiz, Face the Music, which began in 1972.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Gifford" /> On radio, Ray presented Sounds Funny in 1972 in which celebrities spoke about things that amused them as well as The Year in Question in 1973.<ref name="DTObituary" /> From 1979 to 1981, he was the presenter of the BBC Radio 4 series A Touch of Genius in which he reviewed notable musicians around the world.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
He presented quiz shows such as The Movie Quiz from 1972 to 1974 (he spent the final series as a team captain after deciding to give the presenting duties to Michael Aspel),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Film Buff of the Year about films from the silent era to the present day,<ref name="RobinQuizKing2">Template:Cite news</ref> which ran from 1982 to 1986.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> From 1976 to 1978, Ray was the compere of the Saturday night BBC 2 arts documentary series The Lively Arts about composers, musicians, performers and writers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was the presenter of the BBC 2 television series Robin Ray's Picture Gallery in 1979, comparing the treatment of various figures by the film industry with biographical information.<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Between 1980 and 1982, Ray was chairman of the Granada history quiz show Cabbages and Kings.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="BoltonNews1980" /><ref name="RobinQuizKing2" />
The children's television programme Sounds Exciting, broadcast in 1968, was a musical education series culminating in a final "whodunit" called Dead in Tune, with Ray's original story set to the music of Herbert Chappell performed by a chamber group of players from the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Two years later, Argo recorded the piece using an ensemble of 47 LSSO players conducted by Chappell. This LP also included a new commission, George and the Dragonfly, with John Kershaw's words set to the music of Chappell and narrated by Ray, John Kershaw and Susan Stranks (Ray's wife).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
From 1974 he presented a programme called Robin Ray's Record Review on Capital Radio in London.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Ray had a role in the 1977 production of the musical Side by Side by Sondheim at the Garrick Theatre and presented Tomfoolery based on the songs of Tom Lehrer at the Criterion Theatre in London in 1980.<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name="BoltonNews1980" /> At the age of 45, he wrote the musical Cafe Puccini based on the life of the opera composer Giacomo Puccini with Andrew Lloyd Webber, which opened at the Wyndham's Theatre in 1986 with musical director William Blezard.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name="RRay">Template:Cite news</ref> Ray was the author of several books.<ref name="Gifford" /> This included the anthology Time for Lovers (1975),<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref name="Gifford" /> Robin Ray's Music Quiz (1978), Favourite Hymns and Carols (1982), Words on Music (1984),<ref name=":0" /><ref name="GuardianObit" /><ref name="Gifford" /> and was a consultant editor of Classic FM Music Guide to Classical Music (1996).<ref name="WWWEntry" />
He was a panellist for the Booker Prize in 1977,<ref name="DTObituary" /> and was the drama critic for Punch magazine between 1986 and 1987.<ref name="WWTV199091">Template:Cite book</ref> Ray co-wrote and narrated the songs of the Let's Do It show that was complied by David Kernan from the music of Noël Coward and Cole Porter at the Chichester Festival in 1994.<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref name=":1" /> He was the artistic director of Performance Channel TV between 1996 and 1997 and was a consultant for Nimbus Records in 1998.<ref name="WWWEntry" /> He was employed as a music adviser to Classic FM Radio from 1988 until his resignation in 1997.<ref name="DTObituary" /><ref name="WWWEntry" /> He drew up a list of 50,000 pieces of classical music and rated them for popular appeal, which was the basis for the Classic FM playlist. This list proved to be extremely attractive to similar popular classical music radio stations in other countries, and there was a legal dispute between Ray and Classic FM, which Ray won in 1998, as to who was entitled to the copyright in the playlist and ratings.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Personal life and deathEdit
He became engaged to the actress and children's television presenter Susan Stranks in August 1958 and they married at St. Gabriel's Church in Warwick Street, Westminster on 25 January 1960.<ref name="odnb" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Early in their careers they decided they did not want to have children but later they changed their minds and had a son Rupert when Ray was 44.<ref name="GuardianObit" /> Ray died of lung cancer in Hove, Sussex on 29 November 1998.<ref name="odnb" /> He was cremated privately on 3 December.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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