\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tAnthony Head, the actor who played Rupert “Ripper” Giles on TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/em>, died of complications due to pneumonia at the age of 72. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tHis daughters Emily and Daisy Head announced their father’s death in a statement to the BBC<\/a>, writer the actor “passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tOutside of the Buffyverse, Head played crucial roles in the British sketch comedy show Little Britain<\/em>, the fantasy drama Merlin<\/em>, and the sports comedy Ted Lasso<\/em>. But the role of Rupert Giles, Buffy Summers’ mentor and “Watcher,” looms large over his legacy. Outside of the TV series, for which he appeared in 121 episodes, he lent his voice to two Buffy <\/em>video games, a four-minute Buffy: The Animated Series <\/em>pilot short, and on the podcast Slayers: A Buffyverse Story<\/em>. Head’s character was so popular that the show’s creator, Joss Whedon, once considered making a Ripper <\/em>spinoff movie all about Giles but it never materialized. Head’s Buffy <\/em>costar, Nicholas Brendan, died in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tBuffy <\/em>star Sarah Michelle Gellar paid tribute to Head on Instagram <\/a>on Friday. “‘Tell Giles I figured it out and I’m OK.’ Well I don\u2019t have it figured out and I\u2019m not OK,” she wrote. “But I know I\u2019m the lucky one because I knew you. Thank you to Daisy and Emily who not only shared their dad with me, but with the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t“It has been, and forever will be, an honor and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed firsthand the impact both he and his work have had on so many,” Emily and Daisy Head said in a statement announcing their father’s death. “We know how dearly he will be missed by friends, colleagues, and fans of the shows he was in \u2014 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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tHead, who was born in North London on Feb. 20, 1954, studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He got into acting in the Seventies, logging a few TV credits in England in 1978 and appearing in theatrical productions of Godspell<\/em>, The Rocky Horror Show<\/em>, and Peter Pan<\/em>, among others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tHis older brother, Murray, had gotten a head start in the creative life as a musician, earning a hit in 1969, singing the “Superstar,” the Jesus Christ Superstar <\/em>hit sung by the Judas Iscariot character and his own “Someone’s Rocking my Dreamboat” in 1976; Murray Head logged his biggest hit, “One Night in Bangkok,” in 1984. Anthony, who’d been getting mostly small roles in TV and films, found his own fame a couple of years later in British commercials for Nescafe. (Anthony also released a CD of his own music, Music for Elevators<\/em>, a collaboration with George Sarah in 2002, and he can be heard singing “Sweet Transvestite” on a 1990 Rocky Horror Show <\/em>album.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn the decade between his advertisements and the Buffy <\/em>pilot, Head appeared in guest roles on shows like Woof!,<\/em> Highlander<\/em>, NYPD Blue<\/em>, and Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place<\/em> before he cemented his stardom. He later appeared on the British hits Silent Witness <\/em>and Doctor Who<\/em>, as well as the BBC’s radio drama The Archers<\/em>, according to the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn 1982, he met the woman who would become his partner, Sarah Fisher, and the couple had Emily and Daisy. Fisher, who campaigned for animal welfare, died in December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn a 2008 BBC interview, Head said he appreciated the Buffy <\/em>fans who approached him and enjoyed speaking with them person to person. “It’s always nice to meet people who say they like what you do,” he said. “Some of them go all quivery and I say that actors are just ordinary people who got a good break \u2014 please don’t put us on a pedestal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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