Veteran Australian actor Ray Barrett dies aged 82

Veteran Australian actor Ray Barrett, who became a familiar figure on British television in the 1960s and most recently appeared in the big-budget movie Australia, has died at the age of 82.

Barrett died in a hospital on the Gold Coast in the state of Queensland after falling at his home and suffering a brain hemorrhage, his agent Jane Cameron told Australian media.

Barrett studied music, elocution and acting before moving to England, where the craggy-faced actor became a popular television star in the 1960s, appearing in a long list of shows.

He was the voice of some characters in the popular children's puppet series Thunderbirds and Stingray, starred in the long-running BBC show The Troubleshooters and appeared in Dr Who, The Saint and Dixon of Dock Green, among others.

He moved back to Australia in the mid-1970s, appearing in various TV shows over the years as well as the screen adaptation of John Williamson's play Don's Party and the movie The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.

His last major role was as the character Ramsden in Baz Luhrmann's epic Australia, released last year.

Ray Barrett was one of Australia's great leading men ... Few Australian actors were as capable of delivering understatement and highly crafted meaning, wrote actor/director Graeme Blundell, who appeared with Barrett in Don's Party, in an obituary.

Barrett was awarded the Australian Film Institute's Longford Life Achievement Award in 2005 for his long and distinguished acting career.