Anthony Head Dies: ‘Ted Lasso’ & ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Star Was 72

Anthony Head, the British actor best known for roles in Ted Lasso and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has died, aged 72.

Head’s daughters Emily and Daisy, both actors themselves, told BBC News that he “passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family.”

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father,” they said. “It has been, and forever will be, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed firsthand the impact both he and his work have had on so many.”

Born in Camden Town in London, 1944, Head first landed roles in musicals in the late 1970s and moved to TV in the 1980s. He had some big theater roles through the 1990s before gaining worldwide fame when he landed the role of Rupert Giles, Buffy’s watcher, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He moved to the U.S. at this point and was a major character in the hit show.

Head was to go on to appear in a wealth of other TV shows and movies including Little Britain, where he famously played the fictional Prime Minister, Persuasion, in which he was Sir Walter Elliot, and Margaret Thatcher movie The Iron Lady, portraying Geoffrey Howe opposite Meryl Streep.

Head attracted a new generation of fans playing Rupert Mannion in Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, the vindictive ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham’s Rebecca Welton.

He is survived by daughters Emily and Daisy, both actors. His long-term partner Sarah Fisher died last year.