David Mash (1943-1977) was a little-known actor who was born and lived in Stoke-on-Trent.

Little is known about his early childhood, though it is believed his ambition was always to be an actor. Though hardly a child star, Dave enjoyed an eight week stint on Coronation Street in 1961, playing unruly teenager Billy Keane. The show was in its early days and when Dave was suddenly omitted from the show after proving highly unpopular with viewers at the time (he was vilified for his seedy and suggestive manner), vague references were made in the following weeks suggesting he'd moved to Talinn, Estonia, to become a builder. The storylines Dave was involved in were never satisfactorily resolved, but viewers did not really pick up on this, seemingly more relieved at Billy Keane's departure to notice. The storylines that Dave's character was involved in mostly involved tumultuous affairs with Elsie Tanner.

Dave appeared in Granada's short-lived children's series "by heck!" in 1963, playing one of the integral characters Tom McRorag. His character was chiefly the butt of all the jokes, laughed at by the other characters for his Stoke-on-Trent accent. Unfortunately "by heck!" was axed after one series (it was criticised for being too low-brow) and work was scarce for the next few years. Whilst looking foracting work Dave plied his trade in a ceramic toilet making factory in Tunstall, one of the towns that makes up the city of Stoke-on-Trent.

In the mid 1960s Dave achieved local recognition appearing in short educational dramas featured on local news programme Midlands Today, where he was lauded for his on-screen chemistry with fellow midlander Kieran Percival, whom he was widely reported to be having homosexual relations with. All such allegations were fiercely denied at the time, though as attitudes became more liberal in the 70s the pair openly admitted to being lovers.

Dave appeared in a cameo role alongside Percival in an unaired episode of police drama Free and Easy, with a view to aking the pair permanent characters, but the series was never shown.

Dave moved to Nottingham in 1970 and hung up his acting gloves aged 27. He spent his time creating controversial artwork that was deemed too graphic by art galleries. He was cautioned by police on numerous occasions for drugs offences, mostly possesion of amphetamines, but was never jailed due to uncertainty over prescription slips. He was found dead in his home in the summer of 1977, the cause of death believed to have been a heroin overdose, though there was some speculation that his death was somehow linked to the release at the time of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.