Ronald John Allen was born in Reading, Berkshire on December 16th 1930 and lived with his parents and four older sisters in a terraced house in Reading.  Ronald's father died when he was twelve years old, and so Mrs Allen was left to bring up her family of five.  Money was never plentiful and Ronald won a grant assisted place at Leighton Park School, a public school run by a committee of Quakers.  Although Ronald was never a Quaker himself he had a lot of respect for their beliefs.

Ronald Allen had always wanted to be an actor and as soon as he was old enough he enrolled for a three year acting course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he won the John Gielgud Award for being the best pupil in his year.  After leaving RADA he was in repertory at Salisbury for six months, then he did Shakespeare at the Old Vic.  The along came the film parts every actor longs for.  Ronald spent six months in Hollywood where he was offered a three year contract with 20th Century Fox Films.  But Hollywood didn't turn out to be what he wanted from his career, so he made two films - A Night to Remember and Hell Boats - and then came back to England.

In 1962 Ronald was offered the part of Ian Harmon in the BBCs new twice weekly serial Compact.  He played the editor of a woman's magazine for three and and a half years and collected a number of female fans.  His next serial was United in which he played Mark Wilson.  This serial never had much impact so it was dropped.  By far his most successful serial is Crossroads.  He first arrived at the motel in 1971 and has been playing David Hunter ever since.  He enjoys Crossroads very much because of the personal contact with the viewers.  Of all the Crossorads characters there's no denying that when it comes to sex appeal David Hunter is definitely topping the bill in most viewers hearts.  Crossroads producer Jack Barton says;

"We know from the hundreds of fan letters we get for Ronald Allen that a vast army of females, ranging from tennyboppers to very old women, are in love with him."

But this special popularity can have its problems.  Every time he gets involved with a girl in Crossroads the feamle fans don't like it.  The letters pour in from women of all ages, complaining that the girl is not right for David Hunter, and some obviously get carried away with it all and accuse Ronald Allen, as David, of being unfaithful to them!  Some of his letters are quite strange.  People write to him as David Hunter asking if there is any chance of a job at the motel.  He gets plenty of offers of free bed and bawd from women viewers.  One he received read, 'You can put your shoes under my bed anytime my husbands' on night shift.'

Does he mind being a matinee idol?  He is insistent that he is an actor and his job is to give as much pleasure as he can.  And there's no doubt he does it well.  Ronald is a bachelor and he lives in Clapham, South London with a boxer dog called Sam and a seal-point siamese cat called Sita.  Obviously with five days of rehearsing at the ATV studios he has to have a flat in Birmingham.  He lives in an apartment in Edgbaston during the week, then travels home to London on Friday evenings.

Whatever David Hunter may be doing he is always impeccably dressed.  Although he has to look smart as the manager of the Crossroads Motel, it is perhaps surprising that in his private life he rarely ever wears a suit at all.  He is a well-groomed man and apart from a watch and a gold ring, the only other jewellery he wears is a long antique chain around his neck.  Antiques is one of Ronald's hobbies and when he isn't gardening at his London home he's either searching for antiques in street markets or looking around London's art galleries.

Ronald leads an almost monastic existence.  He rarely goes out except to meet friends and tries to keep out of the public eye as much as possible.  He feels guilty though about not doing as much publicity as the rest of the Crossroads cast.  He likes the freedom of being a freelance actor which is how he see's himself.  Over the years people have asked Ronald if they could start a fan club for him, he's always said thank you, but no.  Even so he need not worry about ever feeling alone, not of it's up to the thousands of fans he has collected over the years.