Anthony Head, actor of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso, dies at 72 | television

Anthony Head, the actor best known for his role as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has died at the age of 72.

“He passed away peacefully due to complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family,” his daughters, Emily and Daisy Head, said in a statement.

“It has been, and will forever be, an honor and privilege to be his daughters, and to witness first-hand the impact he and his work have had on so many.”

In addition to playing a mentor to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s character, Head had a recurring role in David Walliams and Matt Lucas’ BBC sketch show Little Britain, and appeared in the BBC production of Merlin as well as film roles in The Iron Lady and The Inbetweeners Movie. Most recently, he played former football club owner Robert Mannion in Ted Lasso.

Gellar began her Instagram tribute to Head with a quote from her character on Buffy: “Tell Giles I figured it out and I’m okay.”

She continued, “Well, I don’t understand it and I’m not feeling well.” “But I know I’m lucky to have known you. Thank you to Daisy and Emily who not only shared their father with me, but with the world.”

Born in Camden, London, Head was raised by artistic parents. His father was a documentary filmmaker who founded Verity Films, while his mother was an actress who played Madame Maigret in a 1960s BBC crime drama. Meanwhile, his brother was also an actor who became famous for his lead role in the 1971 film Sunday Bloody Sunday.

The main family was committed to the arts and passed on her passion to her son. “My Christmas gift was always new clothes that my mother — who was an accomplished seamstress — would make herself,” Head told The Guardian in 2016.

“At playgroup, the woman who ran the group took my parents aside one day and said, ‘We’d love for Anthony to come in costume, but it would be really nice to meet Anthony himself one day — he totally immerses himself in whatever character he’s wearing.’

Head began his career on stage, starring in the West End revival of Godspell in 1978 alongside Su Pollard. In the following decade, he took on several projects, including a role in the 1981 film adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and a role in the 1987 film A Salay for the Dying alongside Bob Hoskins and Liam Neeson.

In the early 1980s, Head also sang backing vocals for the British pop group Red Box, appearing on their 1986 debut album The Circle & the Square. He was arguably best known in the UK and US for his role in Nescafé’s Gold Blend TV commercials, which focused on the slow courtship of a British couple.

However, theater remained a focus of Head’s interest, with a major role as Freddie Trumper in the original West End production of Abba’s musical Chess in 1988, as well as performances in productions of A Patriot for Me and Lady Windermere’s Fan. He also starred as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1990 West End production of The Rocky Horror Show.

After winning the role of Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Head moved to Los Angeles for five years while his partner Sarah and two young daughters lived in England.

“I will try to come back to them every three or four weeks,” he told The Guardian. “The production team would set up dates for me, and every time I had the opportunity to do six clean days, I would get on the plane… I spent a lot of money on plane tickets, but we made it work.”

Head said his rise to international fame taught him “not to get caught up in the noise. [Co-stars] Alyson Hannigan and Sarah Michelle Gellar were talking about magazine covers, and I was thinking: Where are my covers? They were competing, but in the end it’s a game that only lasts so long. “It’s better to keep working.”

After Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended in 2003, Head took a recurring role on Little Britain. The actor played a British Prime Minister who is constantly fawned over by a flirtatious aide (Williams).

In Ted Lasso, he regularly appeared in scenes with series co-creator Jason Sudeikis, and the two were praised for their intuitive on-screen chemistry.

His daughters said: “We know how much friends, colleagues and fans miss the shows he was involved in – he loved his job very much and always considered himself incredibly lucky to have been able to work alongside such exceptionally talented people, in such wonderful productions, across a career that spanned several decades.”

“Our grief is far greater than the hole he left behind but we know his legacy will live on in the shows he was a part of and in the audiences that loved him.

“How lucky we are to know that we are able to watch him do what he loves, even when he is no longer with us.”

Head’s partner Sarah Fisher died in December 2025, aged 61. The couple’s daughters said in a statement at the time: “It was a huge shock to all of us, and it came without warning. There are no words that can express all that was involved, or begin to describe the hole that her absence left.”

Tributes also poured in from those who knew and worked with Head.

Little Britain co-creator Matt Lucas wrote on

“He was so kind and generous,” David Boreanaz, Head’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star, wrote on Instagram.

“There’s a hole in the world,” said James Marsters, who played Spike on the TV show. “Anthony Head is no longer with us. He was a kind and steady presence on the set of Buffy, and the best actor in the cast. He was the best of us. I was lucky to have known him and learned from him. He left the world a better place for his presence. Thank you, Tony, for everything you did.”

“Tony H – thank you for every scene and time shared,” Buffy co-star Eliza Dushku said. “Rest in love and peace, kind sir. Dear.”

“Anthony Head was an amazing actor and he played the worst person in the world, which was an amazing skill because he was the best person,” Brett Goldstein, Head’s Ted Lasso co-star, said on Instagram Stories. “Charming, kind, fun and endlessly cheerful. He will be greatly missed. Love to his family.”