Born in Kalispell, Montana, Bray's family moved to Seattle when he was ten years of age. After graduating from Lincoln High School, he worked as a lumberjack and ranch hand. At the age of 20 his family moved to Hollywood where he worked as a grip for United Artists.
In 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps where he served as a drill instructor and in the South Pacific rising to the rank of Master Sergeant[5]
Early in 1960, Bray was cast as Tom Byson in the episode "Three Graves" of the NBC western series, Riverboat.
In the 1960–1961 television season, Bray played Simon Kane in the ABC series Stagecoach West. The Western comprised 38 one-hour episodes.
He starred in three episodes of NBC's westernLaramie between 1960 and 1963. He appeared in three episodes of CBS's Perry Mason. In 1959 he played private detective and murder victim Carl Davis in "The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll." In the 1962 episode, "The Case of the Angry Astronaut," he had the role of title character and defendant Mitch Heller; and in 1963 he portrayed wealthy murder victim Martin Walden (Episode 180, "The Case of the Potted Planter"). He also guest-starred in NBC's Temple Houston (TV series), Overland Trail, and The Loretta Young Show. He appeared in four episodes of CBS's anthology suspense series Alfred Hitchcock Presents between 1958 and 1961.
In 1963, he guest starred on Gunsmoke as “Gib Dawson”, a settler who marries a Comanche Squaw and has to deal with the racial hatred from others because of it in the episode “Shona” (S8E22). He also appeared as an Army Commander in "The Twilight Zone" S5 E10 "The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms" which aired 12/4/1963.
Bray portrayed forest ranger Corey Stuart in Season 11 of Lassie.[6] He was written out of the series in Season 15 as a victim of a forest fire where his character was sent away to a hospital never to return.[7]