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.
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.
[1] At age 10, Ray received records of Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.
[1][3] 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.
[3] In January 1956, Ray made his television debut as the youngest member of a gang in the ITV crime play The Guv'nor,[3] and performed in a Bob and Alf Pearson summer show in Bournemouth.
[6] He first appeared as a professional actor in a West End production of The Changeling at the Royal Court Theatre in 1960,[5][7] just after graduating from RADA with a diploma in acting.
[22][23] 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.
[3][8][19] 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).
[30] 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.
[31] 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.