Ray Austin (director)


Ray Austin is an English television and film director, television writer, novelist and former stunt performer and actor who has worked in both the United Kingdom and the United States. He served as director on episodes of some 50 programmes between 1968 and 1998.

Life and career

Austin started his career as a stunt performer on such films as North by Northwest and Spartacus. From 1965 to 1967 he served as stunt coordinator on 50 episodes of The Avengers. For The Champions he initially became involved as a second unit director, subsequently rising to the position of full director.
His work as a TV director includes episodes of The Avengers, Randall and Hopkirk , , The New Avengers, and V. He directed 50 of the 88 episodes of the series Zorro, which was filmed in Madrid between 1989 and 1992 for the American ABC Family Channel. He has also directed some made-for-TV films, including The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E., and some feature films such as Virgin Witch and House of the Living Dead.
The Guinness world record site states that "In 1965, Dame Diana Rigg became the first western actress to perform kung fu on Television when the combat choreographers Ray Austin and Chee Soo worked elements of the martial art into her fight scenes on The Avengers. Certificate presentation was done on The New Paul O'Grady Show."

Television

Director

Stunts

Austin was married from 1976 to actress Yasuko Nagazumi, who performed in some of the series he worked on, notably.
He later divorced Nagazumi and married British writer Wendy DeVere Knight-Wilton in 1984; they are now known as the Baron and Baroness of Delvin, and live in Virginia.