Ray Barrett was one of the more popular leading men on British television in the 1960s, including an appearance in the Doctor Who serial The Rescue in 1965. He was on the series The Troubleshooters from 1965 to 1971, and did the voice of John Tracy on the Gerry Anderson marionette series Thunderbirds. It was only in the decades that followed that he emerged to big-screen stardom in his native country. He won the 2005 Australian Film Institute Awards Longford Life Achievement Award.

In his youth he was fascinated by radio, then a marvellous new entertainment medium, and won an on-air talent competition in 1939.