Anthony Head

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.

Anthony Stewart Head (born 20 February 1954) is an English actor and singer.

One of his earlier roles was in the musical Godspell in 1978 with Su Pollard.

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.

Primarily a performer in musical theatre, he rose to fame in the UK in the 1980s following his role in the Gold Blend couple television advertisements for Nescafé, which led to major roles in several television series.

In the early 1980s he provided backing vocals for the band Red Box.

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.

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.

He was featured as well on the album Face in the Window (1983) by Two Way.

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.

Head was educated at Sunbury Grammar School, and furthered his education studying acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

(A version made for North America featured the American brand name Taster's Choice from 1990 to 1997).

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.

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 through the conclusion of the series.

In 1991, Head's rendition of "Sweet Transvestite" was released as a single by Chrysalis Records.

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.

Head had previously auditioned for the role of the Eighth Doctor for the 1996 television film, but lost out to Paul McGann.

He is best known for his roles as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), the Prime Minister in Little Britain (2003–2006), Uther Pendragon in Merlin (2008–2012), and Rupert Mannion in Ted Lasso (2020–2023), as well as voicing Herc Shipwright in BBC Radio 4's Cabin Pressure.

Head was born in Camden Town, London.

In 1997, he took on the role of Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In 2001, he appeared in a special webcast version of Doctor Who, a story called Death Comes to Time, in which he played the Time Lord Valentine.

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.

He also appeared in guest roles in various other dramas, such as Silent Witness, Murder Investigation Team, and Spooks.

He appeared in the 4th 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".

He was featured as the Prime Minister in the popular BBC comedy sketch show Little Britain from 2003 to 2005, and guest starred in several episodes of the 2004 series of popular drama Monarch of the Glen.

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".

In early 2006, he appeared in an episode of Hotel Babylon, 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 October 2006, he voiced Ponsonby, leader of MI6, in Destroy All Humans! 2.

At Comic-Con International in 2007, Joss Whedon said talks were almost completed for a 90-minute Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, Ripper, as a BBC special, 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, and appeared as Mr. Colubrine in the ITV1 comedy drama Sold.

Head also appeared as Sir Walter Elliot in Persuasion.

Head also narrated a BBC behind-the-scenes programme for the American television series Heroes, Heroes Unmasked.

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.'"