Val Lehman (born 1943) is a stockily built Australian character actress who will be forever identified with the role of Wentworth Detention Centre's inmate boss, or "top dog", Bea Smith in the Australian O-Ten Network's long running Prisoner series (which aired under the title Prisoner Cell Block H in the United States and the UK and as Caged Women in Canada). She played the role for four and a half years before famously leaving the series in 1983.