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[title]You might never have met Ray MacDonald, but if you grew up in Thailand in the 1990s he was part of your week all the same, on the telly after school, up on the big screen with your mates, or talking you through a train ride halfway across the map.
Ray, one of the most recognisable faces of a generation of Thai youth, died on August 19. His career runs close to three decades and takes in film, television and the travel programmes that sent a lot of us reaching for an atlas. Plenty of people first know him from the show Teen Talk; others picture him in O-Negative, Dear Galileo or Phobia 2. And for a whole crowd of viewers he plays a travelling companion they never actually meet, someone whose journeys make the wider world seem that bit closer from the sofa.
So his story runs richer than the word 'actor' lets on. Over the years he turns up as a shy young man, a hitman, a monk, a graphic designer and a traveller, each part catching a particular moment in his life and the times around it. Here are 14 of his screen roles, from his first day on set to the work that still brings him to mind.
Fun Bar Karaoke
Ray's first screen appearance comes in Pen-ek Ratanaruang's debut feature, and it wins him Best Actor at the Suphannahong National Film Awards straight out of the gate. He plays Noi, a shy convenience-store worker who turns hitman the moment he falls asleep. The character is odd, cheeky and quietly lonely, and you can already hear his particular voice as an actor. A year on, the same prize comes his way again for O-Negative.
O-Negative
One of the films a lot of 90s teenagers name first, and the one that puts Ray's face in so many memories. It follows a group of university friends growing up together through love and the ordinary business of student life. Watched now, it holds up as a portrait of young Thais at a specific moment, and he helps bring that picture to life.
Fake
He returns as Sung, sharing a flat with his close mates Beh and Po while the three of them work out what they want from jobs, love and the rest of it. One line lands quietly and sticks around: 'Nothing stays with us forever, except experience.' Read back today, it sits close to his own story, since what he leaves behind is not only the work but everything viewers took from following him.
Six
His first proper turn in horror. He plays Karn, one of six friends caught up in odd events after their mate Fai gets a warning about her fate and the number six. The film turns over belief, karma and death, and makes clear he is happy to roam well past teen romance.
The Eye 3: Infinity
More horror, now with a group of teenagers who come to Thailand and start working through an old book called How to See Ghosts. What begins as a laugh reshapes all their lives, and he adds a good deal to the film's uneasy mood.
Demon Warriors (Opapatika)
A big-budget fantasy action piece with a crowded cast, set in a world of the Opapatika, beings with strange powers who end up fighting one another. It shows his range stretches to swords and spectacle as readily as drama.
Roaming
If one project makes Ray a household name among travellers, it is Roaming. In 2007 he leaves Bangkok for London by train, covering more than 15,000 kilometres through 16 countries over 52 days. The trip becomes a documentary series, a book and a DVD, and it changes how a lot of people see him. He is no longer just the bloke showing us the world through a screen; he is the reason plenty of viewers start planning a big trip of their own.
Dear Galileo
Where Roaming stirs the itch to travel, this one manages it from another angle. It follows two young women who head abroad to try life in a different country, with friendship, work and a fair bit of self-discovery along the way. He appears in a part that plenty of viewers hold onto, in a film that leaves you eyeing your passport.
Phobia 2
He shows up in the 'Laaw Cha Ohn' segment as the monk who guides young Pae, played by Kao Jirayu La-ong-manee. The screen time is short, yet it is a neat turn in GTH's horror anthology, one of the ghost franchises audiences queue up for at the time.
In the Shadow of the Naga
A darker, more serious piece. Three criminals dress as monks to reach money hidden inside a temple, and Ray plays Singh, one of the robbers pulling on saffron robes while keeping his own guilt out of sight. From a 90s teen lead to a crook in a heavy drama, the run of parts keeps widening.
O.T. (Ghost Overtime)
Here he lines up alongside Ananda Everingham and Shahkrit Yamnam. The setup drops a group of staff on a late shift, wondering whether the goings-on in the office are a haunting or somebody's plan. It brings him back to the thriller he knows well, though this time the world is one of working adults rather than students.
Bong Srolanh Oun
From Thailand to Cambodia. Ray plays Don, a graphic designer who moves back to the very room he once shared with his girlfriend, only to meet a lot more than old memories. Strange events send him across the border to work out what became of the previous tenant, in a story that folds love, loss and horror together.
Tomorrow and I
In 2024 he appears in this miniseries about big questions of technology and society. He plays Phra Anek, a former IT engineer turned monk who watches people put their faith in an AI called 'ULTRA', a system that reworks Buddhist teaching for the present day. The part sits close to the man himself in his later years, curious about people, about technology and about how any of us are meant to live with a world that keeps shifting.
Behind the Screens
And so we reach his final screen role, a drama-thriller about friendship, love and the secrets left over after a night out. He is no longer here to talk us through this character, yet the performance stays put, one more chapter in a working life of nearly thirty years.
Whichever role you knew him by, he leaves something in the memory. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Ray MacDonald, and here's hoping this last journey is a peaceful and beautiful one.