{"id":717556,"date":"2026-06-05T20:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/717556\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T20:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:48:10","slug":"british-actor-anthony-head-giles-in-tvs-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-dead-at-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/717556\/","title":{"rendered":"British actor Anthony Head, Giles in TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, dead at 72"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Anthony Head, the suave, smooth-voiced British actor known for roles in TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso, has died, his family said Friday. He was 72. <\/p>\n

Head’s daughters, actors Emily and Daisy Head, told the Press Association news agency that the actor faced complications from pneumonia.<\/p>\n

The performer became known to British TV audiences in the 1980s as half of a will-they, won’t-they romantic couple in a series of ads for Nescaf\u00e9 instant coffee<\/a>. The ads were later reshot for a U.S. audience for Taster’s Choice. <\/p>\n

Head achieved wider fame as librarian Rupert Giles, mentor to the title character in the cult-favourite supernatural TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran from 1997 to 2003.<\/p>\n

\"AnIn TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Head portrayed librarian Ruper Giles, a mentor to Sarah Michelle Geller’s titular high school heroine. The two, at left, are seen with co-stars Alyson Hannigan, centre, Seth Green, centre-right, Nicholas Brendon and Charisma Carpenter. (Warner Bros\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He most recently played Rupert Mannion, the villainous ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham’s character Rebecca, in Ted Lasso.<\/p>\n

“Our grief is far greater than the hole he has left behind, but we know his legacy will live on, in the shows he was a part of and in the audiences that love them,” his daughters said. <\/p>\n

“How lucky we are to know we are able to watch him doing what he loved, even when he is no longer with us.”<\/p>\n

\"AActor Anthony Stewart Head signs a poster onstage at a 2006 science fiction convention in Pasadena, Calif. (David Livingston\/Getty Images)Born to an entertainment family<\/p>\n

Head was born in London on Feb. 20, 1954, to Seafield Head, a documentary filmmaker, and Helen Shingler, an actor. His older brother, Murray, is also an actor.<\/p>\n

Other notable roles included playing Geoffrey Howe, deputy to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, played by Meryl Streep, in the Oscar-winning The Iron Lady.<\/p>\n

\"AnAmong Head’s most recent gigs was a recurring role as Rupert Mannion, the villainous ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham’s character, Rebecca, in the Emmy-winning Apple TV series Ted Lasso. (Apple TV)<\/p>\n

Head portrayed a prime minister himself in the sketch comedy show Little Britain, as well as King Uther Pendragon, the father of Prince Arthur, in the Merlin TV series. <\/p>\n

He also appeared in Motherland, Manchild and Silent Witness, acted in many plays and musicals, and recorded music as a singer.<\/p>\n

In 2025, he was predeceased by his longtime partner, animal welfare activist Sarah Fisher, 61.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-717556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}