British actor Anthony Head, best known for his roles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso, has died at the age of 72, just months after the death of his wife, Sarah Fisher.
The news was shared by his daughters, actors Emily and Daisy Head, who told the Press Association that he died “peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family”.
“It has been, and forever will be, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed firsthand the impact both he and his work have had on so many,” their statement said.
“We know how dearly he will be missed by friends, colleagues, and fans of the shows he was in – he loved his job very much, and he 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.”
open image in galleryTheir statement continued: “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. How lucky we are to know we are able to watch him doing what he loved, even when he is no longer with us. We kindly ask that our privacy is respected at this difficult time.”
Born in Camden, London, to documentary filmmaker Seafield Head and actor Helen Shingler, Head quickly found his way into acting.
“When it’s in your family, it’s a choice, it’s there,” he told Metro in a 2013 interview. “It’s not a jump to say, ‘I want to act.’ When I was six I was in a little show my mother’s friends organised, playing the Emperor in The Emperor’s New Clothes. I remember thinking: ‘This is the business, this is what I want to do.’”
Head intitally gained recognition in the UK in the Eighties through adverts for Nescafe’s Gold Blend coffee, opposite Sharon Maughan, becoming known as the “Gold Blend Man”. He then starred as Frank N Furter in the West End revival of The Rocky Horror Show at the Piccadilly Theatre.
His breakthrough role came in 1997, when he was cast as librarian Rupert Giles in the hit teen sci-fi show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the title role as well as Alyson Hannigan, Seth Green, Michelle Trachtenberg and Nicholas Brendon. He starred in the first six seasons before leaving the regular cast, returning as a guest star until the series’ conclusion.
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open image in galleryHead enjoyed further roles in shows including Little Britain, Silent Witness, My Family, The Inbetweeners and Monarch of the Glen, also appearing in films such as The Iron Lady opposite Meryl Streep, as Margaret Thatcher’s longest-serving cabinet member and eventual deputy, Geoffrey Howe.
“I was in awe of Meryl Streep when we worked on The Iron Lady,” he said. “I had no idea what to expect. I thought she would be very Method and come out of the trailer in character. There are actors who do that and you can’t impinge on it.”
open image in galleryInstead, he revealed, Streep would laugh and joke with everyone and then cameras would turn over and the hairs on the back of my neck went up because she was absolutely in it.”
In recent years, Head appeared in an episode of Netflix’s hit period drama series Bridgerton as Lord Sheffield, the grandfather of Kate and Edwina Sharma, and in a recurring role in Ted Lasso as former football club owner Rupert Mannion, joining as a series regular for season three.
open image in galleryHis wife, animal welfare campaigner Sarah Fisher, died aged 61 in December last year. Their daughters described the loss as “immensely shocking” and remembered their mother as “extraordinary and compassionate”.
Fisher was an ambassador for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and patron of Holly Hedge Animal Sanctuary. In a 2009 interview with The Times, Head described her as “the most influential person in my life”.
open image in gallery“When we met at the National Theatre, I was gobsmacked,” he recalled. “I can’t remember what I said… it was the worst pick-up line ever. When securing work was hard after a [famous Nescafe] coffee ad, it was Sarah who said I should test the water in America and change people’s perceptions of me, and that she would stay with the girls. An extraordinary sacrifice.”
Fisher stayed in the UK with their daughters while Head relocated to the US to film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “I have a lovely relationship with Emily and Daisy, amazingly, given that for eight years I was away from them for months on end,” he said in the same interview. “We took every opportunity to be together, they would come to LA, the crew and cast of Buffy were their friends and Sarah Michelle [Gellar] and Alyson [Hannigan] were like sisters to them.
“I’d always say, ‘I can leave Buffy if you want me to, if this is too difficult,’ but they both said no, it’s too cool a show.”
Head is survived by his two daughters, Emily and Daisy.