Anthony Head, Buffy and Ted Lasso actor, dies at 72

Anthony Head, the British actor who moved from one of the United Kingdom’s best-known advertising campaigns to two defining television eras, died at 72 on Friday, June 5, 2026, after complications from pneumonia. His daughters, Emily Head and Daisy Head, said he died peacefully and was surrounded by family.

Head became a familiar figure long before he was a cult favorite in the United States. In the Nescafé Gold Blend adverts that ran from 1987 to 1993, he appeared opposite Sharon Maughan in a slow-burning romance that became one of the best-known examples of serialized advertising. The campaign gave him huge profile in Britain, with his nameless character appearing for 45 seconds at a time, twice a year, across 12 episodes.

That early visibility led to a career that bridged the gap between network cult TV and the prestige streaming age. Head was best known to American audiences as Rupert Giles, the librarian and mentor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which aired from 1997 to 2003. He left the regular cast during the show’s sixth season and returned as a guest star in the seventh and final season, helping carry the series to its conclusion and cementing his place in Buffy fandom.

More than two decades later, Head found another large audience as Rupert Mannion, the former owner of Richmond FC in Ted Lasso, appearing from 2020 to 2023. The part showed the range that made him such a durable character actor: imperious, sly and funny when the role called for it, but always memorable. His work also included Little Britain as the Prime Minister, Merlin as Uther Pendragon, and appearances in Motherland, Manchild, Silent Witness, Spooks, Doctor Who, My Family and the film Repo! The Genetic Opera.

His daughters said his legacy would live on in the shows he worked on and in the audiences that loved them. He is survived in public memory by a family already woven into British screen and stage life: Emily Head and Daisy Head are both actresses, and his brother Murray Head is an actor and singer. Head’s long-time partner, animal welfare campaigner Sarah Fisher, died in December 2025 at 61.