Raymond William Robert Gravell was a Welsh rugby union centre who played club rugby for Llanelli RFC.
21 Facts About Ray Gravell
2.
At international level, Gravell earned 23 caps for Wales and was selected for the 1980 British Lions tour to South Africa.
3.
Ray Gravell was a member of the Gorsedd of Bards, an honour bestowed on him for his contribution to the Welsh language.
4.
Ray Gravell first played for Llanelli RFC in 1970 and was a member of the team that beat a formidable touring All Blacks side in October 1972, eventually going on to captain the club for two seasons from 1980 to 1982.
5.
Ray Gravell scored 119 tries in 481 appearances plus 1 conversion and 1 drop goal.
6.
Ray Gravell made his first appearance for Wales against France in 1975 and played in two Grand Slam winning sides, usually as a centre but sometimes as a winger.
7.
Ray Gravell was selected to play for the British and Irish Lions in their 1980 tour of South Africa; he came on as a substitute in the first test and was in the starting line up for the next three tests.
8.
Ray Gravell played 12 games for invitational touring team the Barbarians.
9.
In 1977 Ray Gravell played his final match for the Barbarians in a star-studded team that faced the returning 1977 British Lions in a charity match to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
10.
Ray Gravell announced his retirement from international rugby in 1982, and he played his last match for Llanelli in 1985 having played 485 times and scored 120 tries for the club.
11.
Ray Gravell was president of Llanelli RFC from 1998 and of the Llanelli Scarlets regional team from their formation in 2003 until his death.
12.
Ray Gravell appeared in the BBC TV movie Filipina Dreamgirls, and this led to a role in the 1992 Louis Malle film Damage as the chauffeur of the character played by Jeremy Irons.
13.
Ray Gravell played a gypsy in the 1996 Welsh cult horror film Darklands directed by Julian Richards and starring Craig Fairbrass and Jon Finch.
14.
Ray Gravell presented regular chat and entertainment shows for both BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru.
15.
Ray Gravell hosted a breakfast radio show on Radio Cymru in West Wales and co-hosted I'll Show You Mine with Frank Hennessy on Radio Wales.
16.
Ray Gravell was "rugby consultant" and appeared as "Referee No 1" in the film Up 'n' Under.
17.
Ray Gravell appeared in the Wales episode of Floyd on Britain and Ireland where he joined Keith Floyd in the kitchen, commented on some career highlights, and translated ingredients into Welsh.
18.
Ray Gravell's father had committed suicide when Gravell was a young man.
19.
Six months after the operation and 35 years to the day after Llanelli's famous win over the All Blacks, Ray Gravell died of a heart attack, aged 56.
20.
Ray Gravell was taken ill on 31 October 2007 while on a family holiday in Spain, but did not recover and died late that night.
21.
At the time of his death, Ray Gravell was mentoring ex-Welsh Guardsman and war hero Simon Weston in the BBC Wales 'reality' TV show The Big Welsh Challenge, in which a team of five celebrities were tasked with mastering the Welsh language in just 12 months.