Strewth, Ray Meagher is turning 80! The veteran Aussie actor, famous for playing the often stubborn but ultimately soft-hearted Summer Bay stalwart Alf Stewart for 37 years, concedes he hadn’t given the milestone much thought until TV WEEK approached him to talk about his illustrious career.
“Thanks for reminding me,” Ray, who celebrates his birthday on July 4, says with a laugh. “But I don’t see it [turning 80] as any big deal. I feel very grateful and fortunate I’ve lasted this long. And when I look back on my misspent youth, at times I think, God knows how.”
Ray’s life, which started on a sheep and cattle station in Roma, Queensland, and then moved to Sydney and across the world via Home And Away, is a remarkable one. It’s plump with good times, as well as moments that are more challenging and marked by sadness – at times, even tragedy.
When he was just eight, Ray lost his mother Patricia and he was later sent to boarding school at Marist College in Brisbane. Seven years later, his father Bill died.
“I can remember feeling pretty bloody down [about losing his parents at a young age],” Ray reflects. “But you get distracted by life and what’s going on. Life moves on, and you move on with it. I didn’t see myself as being, ‘Why has this happened to me?’ I just sort of thought, ‘We’ve got to get on with it.’”
Ray was taken under the wing of his older brother, Colin, who was “a father figure” to the grieving youngster, and his wife Pat, who essentially raised Ray in his parents’ absence. When Colin passed away a little over 10 years ago, it hit Ray hard.
“He was my hero, just absolutely fantastic,” Ray says. “And Pat, who’s still with us, thank God. But when Col went, yeah… I miss him to this day.”
There have been other challenges. Four years ago, Ray was rushed to hospital for emergency heart surgery.
“I was just walking up a hill one day and felt a little shortness of breath rather than pain,” Ray recalls. “I thought, ‘What the bloody hell is going on? This is ridiculous.’”
At the time, Ray and wife Gilly had their bags packed for a road trip to Queensland. But his cardiologist quickly vetoed that and, in Ray’s words, “got the chainsaw out”.
Was he a bit worried at the time?
“Yes, is the honest answer to that,” he says. “But in the fair dinkum department, I’m a bit philosophical about those things. You’ve got to trust somebody whose job it is to try to bring you through.
“And lately, everything’s good health-wise. I’m in pretty good nick for a young bloke of nearly 80.”
While it’s unthinkable to imagine anyone else but Ray playing beloved Alf, it wouldn’t have panned out this way if he’d continued to pursue a life in sport. Growing up, Ray loved sport, especially rugby.
“I like to think the classroom suffered because I was so involved in sport,” he says. “The reality probably is that I was just a dumb bugger and no good in the classroom, and a bit lucky in the sporting arena.”
More than a bit lucky. He played for Queensland against France, had a trial for the Wallabies and once played against rugby league legend Bobby Fulton. Looking back, Ray says his sporting years were “definite highlights”.
Another highlight? Getting cast as three different characters in iconic drama Prisoner – Geoff Butler, Kurt Renner and Ernest Craven – by producer Ian Bradley. It was Ian’s faith in him that gave Ray the confidence to continue with acting and not return to the bush, as he thought he may have to, “with his tail between his legs”.
“I know there are actors who are every bit as good as me, or better, who have had pretty rough careers in terms of continuity of work,” Ray says. “I couldn’t have wished for a better career, really. I’ve loved it.”
Of the role which has made him a household name – and kept him in solid employment for more than three decades – Ray says he’s proud that Alf is so loved.
“Alf is a pretty archetypal Australian character of his time,” he says. “He has his moments, he’ll fly off the handle, you won’t die wondering what he’s thinking of you – but he does have a heart of gold and will be unbelievably loyal to the people around him.”
Ray has “deep affection” for his Home And Away co-stars, such as Georgie Parker (who plays his daughter Roo), Emily Symons (Marilyn) and Ada Nicodemou (Leah) – and Kate Ritchie, who played Sally Fletcher for 20 years from 1988, when she was just nine.
While praising Kate’s successful radio career, Ray says it’s a “tragedy” she’s not doing more acting.
“She was a natural,” he says. “Even as a youngster, she’d come on and grab at your heartstrings or do whatever was required.”
And given Ray’s milestone birthday, dare we ask whether retirement could be on the cards anytime soon? Ray shakes his head.
“I guess I’ll get up one morning and think, ‘You know, maybe it’s time,’” he reveals. “And if I turn up at the gates of the Nine Network two or three times in a week and they say, ‘No, mate – you’re over at Seven’, I probably think it’s time to think about it.”
That’s Ray, ready with a quip and with a twinkle in his eye. Why should he consider calling time on the gig of a lifetime when he’s clearly still enjoying himself?
“Look, I feel blessed,” he says. “I feel honoured. I keep waiting for somebody to tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Righto – the game’s up, mate. Off you go. Get back to the bush.’ But so far, it hasn’t happened.”
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