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Anthony Head found fame as half of the Gold Blend couple in commercials that captured the imagination of the British public in the late 1980s and 90s. They paved the way to success for him on US television in the supernatural horror series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), playing the “watcher” and mentor of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s title character.
As the prim English librarian Rupert Giles at Sunnydale high school, he is assigned to Buffy Summers, a cheerleader there, by the secret Watchers’ Council of Britain, which oversees slayers who use their superhuman skills to fight evil forces. Increasingly, he becomes a father figure to Buffy and her friends Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon). Together, he and those students form the core of a group known as the Scooby Gang (or Scoobies).
Head, who has died of complications from pneumonia aged 72, was attracted to the “seriously funny, wry, sardonic humour” of Joss Whedon’s teen drama and also loved the fact that it was “funky, cool, very hip and thrilling”, and was clear about how to play Buffy’s foil. “He had to be very competent at his job, but totally at sea with anything social,” he told Radio Times. “It’s that sort of stumbling, stuttering Hugh Grant thing with a bit of Prince Charles thrown in.”
Even before he got the Buffy role, Head was aware that “the secret of my success is all down to the twinkle in my eye”, as he told 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 plays by Shakespeare and Tom Stoppard, as well as stage musicals, when he was cast alongside Sharon Maughan in the Nescafé instant coffee ads running from 1987 to 1993.
The soap opera style saga, projecting sophistication and featuring a “will they, won’t they” storyline, begins with Maughan asking to borrow a jar of coffee from her smooth-talking neighbour. Through 12 commercials, each ending with a cliffhanger, a slow-burn romance develops before they finally drive off into the sunset together.
From 1990 until 1997, Head – adopting an American accent – and Maughan starred in new versions of the ads for the US, where the Gold Blend manufacturer Nestlé marketed the Taster’s Choice brand.
Setting his sights on Hollywood (where he was known by his full name, Anthony Stewart Head, because there was already an actor called Tony Head), he landed a role in 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 interact with people’s subconscious minds. The series was axed by the Fox network before completing its run, although it was shown in full on the Sci-Fi Channel two years later. But consolation came with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
During a successful career on both sides of the Atlantic, Head also played Britain’s prime minister, called Michael and clearly based on Tony Blair at the time of his premiership, throughout the cult BBC sketch show Little Britain (2003-06). This time, he was drawn to the “off-the-wall” humour, which included the running joke of the PM’s private secretary (played by David Walliams) being infatuated with him.
More recently, he appeared in the first three series of the sports comedy Ted Lasso (2020-23) as Rupert Mannion, a slimy football club owner who loses the fictional AFC Richmond to his wife in a divorce settlement and finds both a new club and girlfriend. “He’s a particularly unpleasant character and a complete narcissist, but you know where he’s coming from,” Head told 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 best known for playing the French detective’s wife in the 60s BBC TV series Maigret, and Seafield Head, a writer and producer of documentary films. His elder brother, Murray, became an actor, pop singer and star of musical theatre. As a child growing up in Hampton, Middlesex, Head performed in productions staged in a barn by a family 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 school, Surrey, he worked for his father as a runner and assistant editor, and acted with the youth group the Young Stagers at the Thorndike theatre, Leatherhead, before training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1976.
He then played Jesus in the musical Godspell in the West End (Shaftesbury theatre, 1978) and Randolph, a rock star, in Teeth ’n’ Smiles (Nottingham Playhouse, 1979), by David Hare.
He also 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 leading role of Freddie Trumper in Chess (Prince Edward theatre, 1988-89) from his brother, then starred as Frank-N-Furter in the West End revival of The Rocky Horror Show (Piccadilly theatre, 1990-91). His spin-off single, Sweet Transvestite (1991), made the lower reaches of the charts.
His other television roles included James, one of four male friends facing middle 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 talent agency boss, in Free Agents (2009-12); and David Whele, a ruthless senator, in Dominion (2014-15).
He also acted the part of the Conservative MP and deputy prime minister Geoffrey Howe, alongside Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, in the film The Iron Lady (2011).
Sarah Fisher, Head’s partner of more than 40 years, died in December. He is survived by their daughters, Emily and Daisy, both actors, and his brother.
