Anthony Head discovered fame as half of the Gold Blend couple in commercials that captured the creativeness of the British public within the late Nineteen Eighties and 90s. They paved the best way to success for him on US tv within the supernatural horror collection Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), taking part in the “watcher” and mentor of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s title character.
As the prim English librarian Rupert Giles at Sunnydale highschool, he’s assigned to Buffy Summers, a cheerleader there, by the key Watchers’ Council of Britain, which oversees slayers who use their superhuman abilities to battle evil forces. Increasingly, he turns into a father determine to Buffy and her associates Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon). Together, he and people college students type the core of a bunch often known as the Scooby Gang (or Scoobies).
Head, who has died of issues from pneumonia aged 72, was drawn to the “seriously funny, wry, sardonic humour” of Joss Whedon’s teen drama, liked the truth that it was “funky, cool, very hip and thrilling” and was clear about tips on how to play Buffy’s foil. “He had to be very competent at his job, but totally at sea with anything social,” he instructed Radio Times. “It’s that sort of stumbling, stuttering Hugh Grant thing with a bit of Prince Charles thrown in.”
Even earlier than he received the Buffy position, Head was conscious that “the secret of my success is all down to the twinkle in my eye”, as he instructed the Daily Mirror in 1995. “That translates in any country. I don’t do it on purpose – it’s just my playful side.”
He had spent a decade as a jobbing actor on TV and treading the boards in performs by Shakespeare and Tom Stoppard, in addition to stage musicals, when he was forged alongside Sharon Maughan within the Nescafé on the spot espresso adverts working from 1987 to 1993.
The cleaning soap opera type saga, projecting sophistication and that includes a “will they, won’t they” storyline, begins with Maughan asking to borrow a jar of espresso from her smooth-talking neighbour. Through 12 commercials, every ending with a cliffhanger, a slow-burn romance develops earlier than they lastly drive off into the sundown collectively.
From 1990 till 1997, Head – adopting an American accent – and Maughan starred in new variations of the adverts for the US, the place the Gold Blend producer Nestlé marketed the Taster’s Choice model.
Setting his sights on Hollywood (the place he was identified by his full identify, Anthony Stewart Head, as a result of there was already an actor known as Tony Head), he landed a task within the TV sci-fi drama VR.5 (1995) as Oliver Sampson, the mysterious Committee’s enigmatic operative assigning missions to Sydney Bloom (Lori Singer), who can enter an immersive virtual-reality state to work together with individuals’s unconscious minds. The collection was axed by the Fox community earlier than finishing its run, though it was proven in full on the Sci-Fi Channel two years later. But comfort got here with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
During a profitable profession on each side of the Atlantic, Head additionally performed Britain’s prime minister, known as Michael and clearly primarily based on Tony Blair on the time of his premiership, all through the cult BBC sketch present Little Britain (2003-06). This time, he was drawn to the “off-the-wall” humour, which included the working joke of the PM’s non-public secretary (performed by David Walliams) being infatuated with him.
More lately, he appeared within the first three collection of the sports activities comedy Ted Lasso (2020-23) as Rupert Mannion, a slimy soccer membership proprietor who loses the fictional AFC Richmond to his spouse in a divorce settlement and finds each a brand new membership and girlfriend. “He’s a particularly unpleasant character and a complete narcissist, but you know where he’s coming from,” Head instructed the Guardian. “To make somebody believable, you have to see their point of view.”
Born in north London, he was the son of Helen Shingler, an actor greatest identified for enjoying the French detective’s spouse within the 60s BBC TV collection Maigret, and Seafield Head, a author and producer of documentary movies. His elder brother, Murray, grew to become an actor, pop singer and star of musical theatre. As a baby rising up in Hampton, Middlesex, Head carried out in productions staged in a barn by a household good friend. “I got to be the Emperor in The Emperor’s New Clothes,” he recalled. “As I walked through the audience, all heads turned towards me and I remember thinking, ‘This is what I want to do for a living.’”
On leaving Sunbury grammar college, Surrey, he labored for his father as a runner and assistant editor, and acted with the youth group the Young Stagers on the Thorndike theatre, Leatherhead, earlier than coaching on the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1976.
He then performed Jesus within the musical Godspell within the West End (Shaftesbury theatre, 1978) and Randolph, a rock star, in Teeth ’n’ Smiles (Nottingham Playhouse, 1979), by David Hare.
He additionally acted the fortune-teller Artemidorus in Julius Caesar (Riverside Studios, London, 1980), the Player in Stoppard’s tragicomedy Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Young Vic theatre, 1981) and Absalom in Peter Shaffer’s biblical drama Yonadab (National Theatre, 1985-86).
Back in musicals, he took over the main position of Freddie Trumper in Chess (Prince Edward theatre, 1988-89) from his brother, then starred as Frank-N-Furter within the West End revival of The Rocky Horror Show (Piccadilly theatre, 1990-91). His spin-off single, Sweet Transvestite (1991), made the decrease reaches of the charts.
His different tv roles included James, certainly one of 4 male associates going through center age, in Manchild (2002-03); Maurice Riley, a retired burglar returning to crime, in The Invisibles (2008); King Uther Pendragon, Prince Arthur’s father, in Merlin (2008-12); Stephen Caudwell, a sex-obsessed expertise company boss, in Free Agents (2009-12); and David Whele, a ruthless senator, in Dominion (2014-15).
He additionally acted the a part of the Conservative MP and deputy prime minister Geoffrey Howe, alongside Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, within the movie The Iron Lady (2011).
Sarah Fisher, Head’s accomplice of greater than 40 years, died in December. He is survived by their daughters, Emily and Daisy, each actors, and his brother.