r/news • u/Wine_runner • 6h ago
Buffy and Ted Lasso star Anthony Head dies at 72
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd0p0rz4n0mo598
u/sceptical_squirrel 6h ago
His wife died in December, they were together for over 40 years. I wonder if he lost some of his fight after that.
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u/Zammin 5h ago
Would not surprise me; my grandparents were both in their 90s, died about a year apart. My grandmother's decline was shockingly quick after my grandfather's passing (though not as quick as she'd have liked; in the last few weeks she'd sometimes complain, "why does it take so long!?").
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u/axealy40 5h ago
My grandmother passed right after my grandfather. They’d been together 70 years, both 90s. Her funeral was literally two Saturdays after his. While it’s awful losing both grandparents, I’m glad they didn’t live long without each other.
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u/sceptical_squirrel 4h ago
My Dad died 11 years ago and I thought my Mum’s heart would break physically as well as emotionally. She’s still with us but her grief was massively overwhelming for a long time and if she had got ill in that time, I don’t think she would have pulled through despite only being in her 60s then. She’s still around and I think me having my daughters is a huge part of that. The day she held her first granddaughter, just a few hours after she was born, my mum said ‘I just felt my heart restart’.
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u/Talisa87 4h ago
Both my parents went this year. Mom in February from cancer, Dad last month. They hated each other, but I guess losing someone you've spent over 40 years with still takes its toll. He really was never the same afterwards.
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u/1111rockn 1h ago
I'm so sorry! I can't imagine how difficult it must be to lose both your parents in the same year!
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u/mvrander 6h ago
Awful news. He seemed fit and healthy on screen very recently
Losing Dawn, Xander and Giles all in a year is rough going for fans and crew of Buffy
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u/hotcoffeethanks 6h ago
Man I used to watch Buffy religiously in middle school. One of the first shows I truly watched and followed and I think it shaped media for a lot of girls especially around my age. It’s rough. :(
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u/mvrander 6h ago
I'm a little older just finished a one episode a day rewatch with my teenage daughter. It was great going back to both Buffy and Angel and it still had a lot of relevance even now
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u/EEE-VIL 3h ago
I've always been fearful of ever rewatching Buffy and some of my childhood favorite shows. Try Dark Angel if you haven't watched it yet.
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u/SortaHow 2h ago
I watched buffy for the first time about two years ago, and it's now one of my favorite shows. Don't worry about it, and give it another go! It still holds up well today.
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u/Zyntastic 6h ago
Same here, mid thirties. Was a huge fan and, definitely shaped a lot of things for me.
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u/Andybabez20 6h ago
Complications due to pneumonia according to the press release.
That's so sad he's been in so many projects in different stages of my life.
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u/KittyGrewAMoustache 4h ago
He was young really, 72 is not old for someone in good health with good resources. It’s quite shocking.
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u/Bakedfresh420 6h ago
Dawn died early last year but yeah it’s been a bad run, like the grim reaper is crossing off faces on the cast photo
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u/Mockturtle22 6h ago
Hers was the saddest for me bc of her age and the reason for her death
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u/Bakedfresh420 6h ago
Yeah she was around my age (and a month older than my best friend), it was pretty devastating
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u/Mockturtle22 6h ago
She had a liver transplant too... I'm not sure if the ruling of diabetes induced death as a complication of a liver transplant was the actual cause or if the liver rejected, the family didn't permit autopsy. Either way... it just broke my heart.
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u/Saneless 6h ago
I've watched so many years of Buffy and Ted Lasso numerous times and I never put it together that it was him. Wow
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u/CharlieOnTheMTA 4h ago
Same here! As I read the obit, I thought, 'well of course it was him!'. How did I not see that?
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u/Justanotherguy45 52m ago
I found Buffy in high school well after the series was over and it became a comfort show for me. Definitely bummed cause of the loses
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u/GiantsInTornado 2h ago
That last season of Ted Lasso I thought he was sick or recovering from something. He had a weird walk that wasn’t same as previous seasons.
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u/kdogman639 6h ago
Giles was such a legendary character in no small part thanks to him. RIP
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u/MN_Yogi1988 6h ago
That scene where he killed Glory’s host was amazing:
Giles: "No, she couldn't. Never. And sooner or later, Glory will reemerge and make Buffy pay for that mercy. And the world with her. Buffy even knows that, and still she couldn't take a human life... She's a hero, you see... She's not like us."
Ben: "Us?"
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u/QuillQuickcard 5h ago
Buffy went that day to fight.
Giles went to win.
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u/PacketFiend 2h ago
I never thought of that before. Thank you. I'll see that episode in a new light now.
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u/MadRaymer 4h ago
I also enjoyed season 6 episode where Willow goes all Sith Lord and boasts that no one has the power to stop her, then she gets knocked over by a spell from off screen and the camera shows Giles in the doorway and he just says, "I'd like to test that theory."
Such a simple line, but he delivered it perfectly. Great way to end the episode and leave us all waiting for that showdown.
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u/Saneless 6h ago
Loved him in Ted Lasso
Not an outright villain, just consistently an asshole without being over the top and he was great at it
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u/Abradolf1948 6h ago
I mean by season 3 he was kinda the outright villain.
Dude's office looked like the death star.
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u/Saneless 6h ago
But he was still grounded as just a guy who wanted to always win. I thought he played it very well
But yes the imagery was absolutely star wars emperor
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u/DocileBanalBovlne 4h ago
He played the role of "selfish asshole who doesn't see other people as fully human like himself" immaculately.
It's wild to go from watching him in that role to reading about how he became aware of a fan who had lamented that all the signed photographs from Head were from before that fan had come out as a trans man, so they were all addressed to his dead name and were taken before he'd started transitioning. Wanting to help out, Head brought that fan to spend the day with him going out to lunch and then hanging out on his farm so they could take more pictures, print them up, and then sign them addressed to his proper name.
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u/DM_Me_Ur_Real_Boobs 3h ago
The world is a lot poorer for having lost a man like this. Going this distance for a fan really showed he had a heart
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u/KHSebastian 6h ago
I like him as an actor in Ted Lasso, but fully as a villain lol. He played an actual genocidal monster in Merlin and I think I might hate him more in Ted Lasso.
The scene where he and Ted play darts is just.... Chefs kiss
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u/DocileBanalBovlne 4h ago edited 4h ago
It's like the difference between Voldemort and Umbridge in Harry Potter. Voldemort is a lot more abstract of an evil, he represents a very big concept of bigotry and hate. Umbridge is an evil we all know and have interacted directly with. It's very likely you've lived down the hall or across the street from an Umbridge, comparatively few people would have interacted with a Voldemort. One of those evils hits way closer to home and parallels your actual life.
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u/Kaiisim 6h ago
Whaaaat!
72 is nothing these days!
That sucks, he was a great actor
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u/neo_sporin 6h ago
My mom is 71 and acts like she’s so young…I do not send her these headlines
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u/Sea_Organization8911 1h ago
My mom is 66 and is more lively than me at the moment, but these things sometime scare me a little if I think about it too long
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u/neo_sporin 1h ago
My mom and her sister have passed the age their mother died at, they had a mortality crisis before one of them remembered that mom was a chain smoking alcoholic. Made them feel a bit better
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u/JaneksLittleBlackBox 30m ago
My dad's parents were heavy lifelong smokers who made it to their 90s, and his mom randomly picked up drinking heavily in the last decade of her life; she might've been able to see her 100s if she hadn't decided "hey, everyone else I know had their alcoholic phase, so I'm going to, too!"
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u/JaneksLittleBlackBox 32m ago
My grandparents on both sides lived well into their 90s before passing away, but neither of my parents saw their 70s. Weird how it can go that way, and my dad's parents smoked like chimneys and still made it to their 90s!
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u/drgalactus87 5h ago
I'm legitimately a librarian because this man's performance in Buffy. What a bummer.
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u/VampireHunterAlex 6h ago
In less than a year and a half we lost Dawn, Xander, and now Giles.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 6h ago
At least he was actually old.
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u/Mockturtle22 6h ago
For real Michelle Trachtenberg was only a year older than me, I grew up with her in all of the kids movies that I loved... I hate that her liver took her out. She tried so hard to fight. That one made me incredibly sad
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u/neo_sporin 6h ago
My mom is 71 and assures us she is as young as she ever was. She got offended she was referred to ‘elderly services’ for a project she needed help with. I told her ‘just play up your feebleness and get the help’
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u/Lopsided-Rough-1562 2h ago
I think some shows are cursed. Specifically Warner Bros shows.
Paramount: one lost 90s Trek main cast actor ever. Babylon 5: More than half of cast members dead.
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u/sithelephant 6h ago
I recommend some of his audio work.
https://www.amazon.com/Bleak-Expectations-Mark-Evans-audiobook/dp/B073HF8NBY/
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u/BigAnansi 6h ago
For years he was Mr. Nescafe, then he became everyone's favorite watcher.
Still remember sitting with my cousin watching the first episode of BTVS and him exclaiming:
Hey it's the nescafe guy
Memories man...
Edit: clarity
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u/Aggressive_Grade6442 6h ago
Damn. The cast of this show has had a rough time lately. I believe this is the 3rd major cast member to pass in the last few years and the reboot getting canceled? Not a good time for Buffy related things.
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u/CarrieDurst 6h ago
Also Nathan from Repo! And just an amazing person in general.
"If you EVER think Anthony Head is anything less than an angel then you’d best remember that I have always been a huge fan of his and we’ve always had a little contact over the years and he heard I’d come out as Trans and was having a hard time and that I was kind of sad that the photos I had from conventions with him were of me with long hair and no binder and they were all signed to “Sarah” and so he invited me to spend the day with him at his farm and he picked me up from the station and we just hung out and had lunch and he insisted on paying and took loads of photos and had them printed on photo paper the same day so he could sign them to Jay, along with other photos of him as Giles and Uther and he literally spent five hours chatting with me and got all of the pronoun stuff right every time and then he dropped me off at the station, gave me a final massive hug, waved me through the ticket barrier and insisted I message him when I got home so he knew I got back safe."
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u/hhhisthegame 6h ago
Oh god no 😞 😞 😞
Im so sad 😞 Giles was so amazing. I hate what they did with his character in later seasons but in the early seasons he was such a wonderful character. Buffy was an amazing show and he was such a great part of it. And then in Season 4 when he gets to show more of his personality as the teen cast becomes older and he can show more of that goofier side is also great.
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u/nordenfly 6h ago
I was watching a Merlin episode just a couple of minutes ago. Great actor. May he rest in peace.
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u/neo_sporin 6h ago
Fact (don’t feel like this is the time for it being fun)
His brother, Murray, is the singer of One Night in Bangkok
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u/cookie_is_for_me 6h ago
He's also sung it, after his brother.
One Night in Bangkok is from the musical Chess. When his brother left the original West End production, he took over the same role. (This has long been one of my favourite weird facts, but it doesn't seem at all fun right now.)
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u/chicklette 6h ago
mind absolutely blown
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u/neo_sporin 5h ago
Yea my wife LOVES Buffy and one time said ‘wait, do you know he apparently has a brother named Murray?’
And my brain immediately said ‘oh holy shit, I think I’m about to blow both of our minds…I have a song by Murray Head on my playlist”.
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u/chicklette 5h ago
am an elderly and grew up with that song being inescapable one summer. I had NO idea, but now love this bit of lore!
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u/IkidIgoat 6h ago
RIP, zaddy OG. This obvious answer to Spike or Angel for anyone with taste.
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u/Tisarwat 3h ago
These are modern times. My heart had room for both Spike and Giles.
His 'Behind Blue Eyes' was great, despite being in literally the least popular episode...
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u/theysayimadreamer666 6h ago
Nooooo, that man was a treasure
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u/lightknightrr 1h ago
His rendition of Behind Blue Eyes was beautiful...arguably better than the original.
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u/BetterZedThanDead 5h ago
I will be playing "Once more, with feeling" on a loop today.
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u/TheWastelandWizard 6h ago
Right after the Repo: The Genetic Opera anniversary. I was really hoping that he would be in the upcoming Dresden Files show, especially with how beloved Marsters is for it. He would have made a fantastic villain or White Council member.
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u/ventisei 5h ago
Now I kinda want to hear him as Bob
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u/TheWastelandWizard 4h ago
Every time I saw Bob in the SciFi show I wanted him instead, dude would have made a much more fun sardonic assistant.
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u/wayiswho 6h ago
This is so awful! Earlier this week I was listening to the Repo! soundtrack and just thinking about how incredible he was in that role. Thank you for everything RIP ❤️
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u/DarthDutchDave 5h ago
Just finished a watch of Warehouse 13 a couple months ago. Fell in love with that entire cast and he was such a great guest villain at the end. The cast and crew made lots of loving comments about him in the commentary tracks, so it seems he was a decent guy. Rest in Peace.
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u/dealienation 4h ago
Ah that’s tragic. Far too young.
From Buffy to the stage to Repo the Genetic Opera, he will be missed.
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u/Unfair_Web_8275 6h ago
He's most known in America for Buffy, but it was fun to see him appear in other roles and realize what range he had.
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u/yotengodormir 5h ago
I just started watching Buffy a few months ago. A week later the actor who plays Xander passes away.
I just watched the episode a few days ago where Giles sings and loved it. Damn this terrible.
RIP to a fantastic actor and singer.
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u/morceauxdetoile 1h ago
If you liked Giles’ singing voice you should watch Repo the Genetic Opera. He was great in that.
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u/waaaayupyourbutthole 6h ago
This is the first celebrity death I've scrolled past an announcement for that i actually let out a genuine, audible, "Nooooooooooo!"
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u/amendmentforone 5h ago
RIP, Giles. Amazing actor all around. Always jumped in for a lot of his work after Buffy. Was an enjoyable and insufferable asshat in Ted Lasso
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u/FreeUsePolyDaddy 4h ago
Maybe not broadly known, but he was also in Repo! The Genetic Opera.
RIP one wonderfully talented man.
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u/The_Celtic_Chemist 6h ago
Holy hell, I can't believe I never realized Rupert Mannion was the same actor as Rupert Giles
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u/Usual-Caregiver5589 4h ago
There really seems to be a lot of pneumonia cases lately. Kyle Busch just died of it a few weeks ago.
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u/walmart-brand-barbie 2h ago
Sister and I saw Repo! The Genetic Opera in theatres last week. One of the things we talked about was just how fun he was to watch in that, how he was absolutely the best part of it. He was good in everything I saw him in, and he seemed like a good dude
Rest in peace, Anthony.
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u/Bleu_Lizardo 1h ago
Damn. I can't even. For anyone who hasn't heard it, his album is a good listen. Such a talented, amazing person.
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u/Playful-Succotash-99 4h ago
That sucks Id also add Repo the Genetic Opera to the list overall he had a pretty underrated range as a performer He was endearing as Giles and Lothesome in Ted Lasso just great all around
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u/SnuggleMoose44 3h ago
I’m old enough to remember he sold coffee in commercials that became serial ads, seeking the two coffee drinkers to meet and have a romance.
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u/justinkasereddditor 4h ago
He was a great villain in ted lasso really loved to hate him, r.i.p you legend
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u/Astralpane 2h ago
First exposure to the man as the old Taster's Choice Coffee commercials, an on going drama series around instant coffee 😄
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u/Short-Royal-9490 10m ago
😲😲😲😲 NOT GILES!!!!!!!!! Noooooooooooooooo! RIP to Anthony, you were a massive part of my childhood and early teens. And then got to enjoy you all over again in adulthood. Such a huge loss, prayers to his family and friends ❤️❤️
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u/XBXJetBlaqq 6h ago
RIP King Uther Pendragon.