The Winstone family, who were greengrocers, were living at 82 Caistor Park Road, Plaistow when Ray was born in Hackney Hospital on February 19th, 1957. Ray attended Portway School until he was 7 years old and then his family moved to Enfield. When he was 12 he joined the famous Repton Amateur Boxing Club and, over the next 10 years, won 80 out of 88 bouts. At welterweight, he was London Schoolboy Champion on three occasions, fighting twice for England.

Ray studied acting at the Corona School before being cast by director Alan Clarke as 'Carlin' in the BBC Play production of 'Scum' in 1977. He has appeared in numerous films and TV series over the past 30 years including as Kevin in ‘Quadrophenia’ (1979); Will Scarlet in  24 episodes of 'Robin of Sherwood' (1984);  'Nil By Mouth' (1997); as the voice of Mr Beaver in ‘The chronicles of Narnia’ (2005); as Sweeny Todd in the TV drama of the same name (2006), and in 2008 he will appear in ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’. He is a big football fan and supports West Ham.