The great Australian actor was also John Tracy in the Thunderbirds.
He wrote about it in his biography, observing that the British show's creators showed him 5 marionettes and asked him which one he would like to be.
He picked John Tracy, the solitary occupant of Thunderbird 5.
To quote from a fan website:
"Thunderbird 5 floats high over the Earth in geosynchronous orbit,scanning the globe 24 hours a day for distress calls. Equipment aboard the satellite can pick up broadcasts at any frequency....
Maintaining a lonely vigil in outer space, astronaut John Tracy is International Rescue's Space Monitor, responsible for receiving and analyzing the calls for assistance received by the communications equipment aboard Thunderbird 5. Once he's gathered the details and has assessed the situation, he contacts Tracy Island and informs Jeff Tracy, thereby setting off the chain of events which will send his brothers or Lady Penelope off to the rescue. Though he's served on few actual rescue missions, John constantly contributes updates, performs translation and relays technical data from Brains and Tin-Tin to the rescue sites via the Mobile Control Unit or directly to the ships, thus proving him to be a vital link in the chain of action."For the Thunderbirds Ray Barrett was also The Hood, and (adopting a ridiculously high pitched voice) the Duchess Dowager.
Ray did the American accent easily and was miffed that he never got paid for (the near-continuous) repeats.
As he wrote: "Definitely not F-A-B!"
All of which means Ray Barrett will touch lives forever more.
