LL Cool J soon led to an increase in multi-racial audiences and listeners, adding to the legacy of the album and hip hop as well. In 2017, LL Cool J became the first rapper to receive Kennedy Center Honors. LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American hip hop recording artist, record producer, actor, author and entrepreneur from Queens, New York. He is known for such hip hop hits as "Going Back to Cali", "I'm Bad", "The Boomin' System", "Rock the Bells" and "Mama Said Knock
Ray Smith (actor) won him a posthumous BAFTA Cymru Award (Best Actor) in 1992. His son was the musician Huw Justin Smith, better known as Pepsi Tate. Ray Smith (actor) Ray Smith (1 May 1936 – 15 December 1991) was a Welsh actor who played the tough-talking police chief, Detective Superintendent Gordon Spikings, in the television series "Dempsey and Makepeace". He was the first actor to play Brother Cadfael for BBC radio. Smith was born in Trealaw in the Rhondda Valley, but lived for most of his adult life in Dinas Powys. He became interested in acting while he was at school, and