Anthony Head

Head was born in Camden Town, London. His father was Seafield Laurence Stewart Murray Head (20 August 1919 – 22 March 2009), a documentary filmmaker and a founder of Verity Films, and his mother was actress Helen Shingler (29 August 1919 – 8 October 2019); they married in 1944 in Watford. His older brother is actor/singer Murray Head. Both brothers have played the part of Freddie Trumper in the musical Chess at the Prince Edward Theatre, London, with Murray a part of the original cast in 1986, while Anthony was in the final cast in 1989.^[2]

Head was educated at Sunbury Grammar School in Surrey,^[1] and furthered his education studying acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).^[3] In discussing why he chose acting as a career, in an interview in 2013 he said that "When it's in your family, it's a choice, it's there. 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.'"^[4]

One of his earlier roles was in the musical Godspell in 1978 with Su Pollard.^[5] In the same year, Head made his television debut in the London Weekend Television series Enemy at the Door as Clive Martel, of the island resistance.^[6]

In the early 1980s he provided backing vocals for the band Red Box.^[7] He was featured as well on the album Face in the Window (1983) by Two Way.^[8]

In the late 1980s, he gained wider recognition as the man in the Gold Blend couple series of coffee commercials, alongside Sharon Maughan, for Nescafé Gold Blend between 1987 and 1993.^[9] (A version made for North America featured the American brand name Taster's Choice from 1990 to 1997).^[9]

Head played Frank N. Furter in the 1990–91 West End revival of The Rocky Horror Show at London's Piccadilly Theatre, with Craig Ferguson as Brad Majors.^[10] In 1991, Head's rendition of "Sweet Transvestite" was released as a single by Chrysalis Records.^[11] Head played the role again in the summer of 1995 at London's Duke of York's Theatre, a May 2006 tribute show at London's Royal Court Theatre, and an October 2000 production at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.^[11]

In 1997, he took on the role of Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.^[12] While playing this role he lived in the United States during the late 1990s and early 2000s, although his family continued to live in the UK. Head left the regular cast of Buffy during the show's sixth season and subsequently appeared several times as a guest star until the conclusion of the series.^[13]

In 2002, he co-starred in the BBC Two television series Manchild, a show revolving around four friends approaching their fifties who try to recapture their fading youth and vitality while dealing with life as 'mature' men.^[14] He also appeared in guest roles in various other dramas, such as Silent Witness, Murder Investigation Team and Spooks.^[15] He appeared in the fourth series of the British hit sitcom My Family in 2003, playing one of the main characters' (Abi's) father in the episode "May the Best Man Win".^[15] He was featured as the prime minister in the popular BBC comedy sketch show Little Britain from 2003 to 2005,^[15] and guest starred in several episodes of the 2004 series of popular drama Monarch of the Glen.^[15]

In 2001, he appeared in a special webcast version of Doctor Who,^[15] a story called Death Comes to Time, in which he played the Time Lord Valentine. He also guest starred in the Excelis Trilogy, a series of Doctor Who audio adventures produced by Big Finish Productions, and in 2005 narrated the two-part documentary Project: WHO?, detailing the television revival of the series, for BBC Radio 2 (and released to CD in 2006 by BBC Audio). In April 2006 he appeared as a school's alien headmaster, Mr. Finch, in an episode of the second series entitled "School Reunion". Soon after, he recorded an abridged audio book of the Doctor Who novel The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker. He narrated the third and fourth series of Doctor Who Confidential. He also voiced the character Baltazar, Scourge of the Universe (an evil space pirate searching for the Infinite) in the first ever animated Doctor Who special, "The Infinite Quest".^[15] Head had previously auditioned for the role of the Eighth Doctor for the 1996 television film, but lost out to Paul McGann.^[15]

In early 2006, he appeared in an episode of Hotel Babylon,^[15] a BBC One drama set in a hotel, in which he played a suicidal man who recovers and lands a music deal. The same year he filmed a pilot for a new show entitled Him and Us, loosely based on the life of openly gay rock star Elton John, for American TV channel ABC, co-starring Kim Cattrall. In July he appeared as Captain Hook at the Children's Party at the Palace, a live pantomime staged in the grounds of Buckingham Palace as part of Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday celebrations. In October 2006, he voiced Ponsonby, leader of MI6, in Destroy All Humans! 2.^[15]

At San Diego Comic-Con in 2007, Joss Whedon said talks were almost completed for a 90-minute Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, Ripper, as a BBC special,^[16] with both Head and the BBC on board, though this has not come to fruition. In 2007, he portrayed Stockard Channing's gay brother in the English film Sparkle,^[12] and appeared as Mr. Colubrine in the ITV1 comedy drama Sold.^[15] Head also appeared as Sir Walter Elliot in Persuasion.^[17] Head also narrated a BBC behind-the-scenes programme for the American television series Heroes,^[12] Heroes Unmasked.^[15] He has also been seen as Maurice Riley in the BBC drama The Invisibles alongside Warren Clarke.^[15]

 

After seeing Anthony Head in the Buffy musical episode, "Once More With Feeling", Saw director Darren Lynn Bousman cast him in his 21st century rock opera, Repo! The Genetic Opera.^[18] Head portrays an organ repossessor, employed by a fictional dystopian medical firm; "Anthony Head was my number one choice for Repo Man from the very beginning", said Bousman in an interview^[18] shortly before the film's release on 7 November 2008. The film also stars Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton.

Head has also performed for radio, taking two of the lead roles—arch-villain Mr. Gently Benevolent, and his descendant, journalist Jeremy Sourquill—in the BBC Radio 4 comedy series, Bleak Expectations (five series, 2007–12). He also had a significant recurring role in the last two series (2011–13) of the Radio 4 sitcom Cabin Pressure as Hercules Shipwright, a romantic interest for the airline CEO played by Stephanie Cole, and returned for show's two-part finale in 2014.

Head was part of the regular cast of the BBC drama series Merlin, about the mythical wizard Merlin.^[19] Head played King Uther Pendragon, the father of Prince Arthur.

Head also provided voice-over work for the Nintendo Wii video game Flip's Twisted World, developed by Frozen North Productions.^[20] For his acting in the film Despite the Falling Snow he won the Best Supporting Actor award at the 2016 Prague Independent Film Festival.^[21] In July 2018 Head was added to the cast of long-running BBC radio soap-opera The Archers, playing Robin Fairbrother, member of a family with several past and current connections to the Archers themselves.

From 2019, he played Bill in 4 episodes of Motherland with Anna Maxwell Martin and Diane Morgan.^[12] From 2020 to 2023, he played former Richmond F.C owner Rupert Mannion, in Ted Lasso alongside Jason Sudeikis and Hannah Waddingham.^[15] For his role in the final season, Head was nominated alongside the rest of the cast for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.^[22]

Head reprised his role as Giles in the Audible exclusive audio series Slayers: A Buffyverse Story alongside his former Buffy co-stars James Marsters, Charisma Carpenter, Amber Benson, Juliet Landau, Emma Caulfield Ford, James Charles Leary and Danny Strong. The series was released in October 2023.^[23]

Head lives in Bath, Somerset, with his partner, Sarah Fisher. They have two daughters, Emily and Daisy, both of whom are actresses.^[1]

• Face in the Window – EP (1983 album) with the band Two Way
• "Sweet Transvestite" (1991 single) Chrysalis Records, 7-inch single, 12-inch single, CD single, and shaped picture CD^[11]
• Music for Elevators (2002 album) in collaboration with George Sarah
• Once More, with Feeling (2001 album) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• "Cry" (2012 single) written by Marina Florance for the Oldie Composers Competition
• Staring at the Sun (2014 album) solo album of both covers and original work^[24]

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anthony Stewart Head.

• BFI.org, Anthony Head at the British Film Institute
• Anthony Head at IMDb
• Watch Anthony Head in the short film Amelia and Michael

Articles and interviews

• Who's Head of the class, BBC Where I Live: Somerset (December 2006)
• Interview: Anthony Head, Helen Otter, BBC Where I Live: Somerset (April 2006)
• Anthony Head Interview: King Arthur Screwed Up My Nintendo, TheTorchOnline.com (June 2009)
• Biographies of Giles and Head at "Buffyguide"