Anthony Head

For other people named Anthony Head, see Anthony Head (disambiguation).

Anthony Stewart Head (born 20 February 1954)^[1] is an English actor and singer. 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. 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), and Uther Pendragon in Merlin (2008–2012), as well as voicing Herc Shipwright in BBC Radio 4's Cabin Pressure.

Anthony Head
Head at the 2007 Scream Awards
Born	Anthony Stewart Head (1954-02-20) 20 February 1954 (age 68) Camden Town, London, England^[1]
Education	Sunbury Grammar School
Alma mater	London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Occupations	Actor singer
Years active	1977–present
Partner	Sarah Fisher (1982–present)^[1]
Children	Emily Daisy
Parent	Helen Shingler (mother)
Relatives	Murray Head (brother)
Website	anthonyhead.org

Early life

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.^{[citation needed]}

Head was educated at Sunbury Grammar School and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).^[1] 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.'"^[2]

Career

1970s to 1990s

His first role was in the musical Godspell; this led to roles in television on both BBC and ITV, one of his earliest being an appearance in the series Enemy at the Door (ITV, 1978–1980). In the early 1980s he provided backing vocals for the band Red Box.^[3] In the late 1980s, he appeared in a storyline series of twelve coffee commercials with Sharon Maughan for Nescafé Gold Blend. (A version made for North America featured the American brand name Taster's Choice.) The soap opera nature of the commercials brought him wider recognition, along with a part in the Children's ITV comedy drama Woof!

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. 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 3 May 2006 tribute show at London's Royal Court Theatre, and a 14 October 2000 production at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.^[4]

Success on the stage and a number of brief appearances on American television, such as in the short-lived VR.5, led to accepting the role of Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997. For this role he lived full-time 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 many interviews at the time, Head said he left the show to spend more time with his family, having realised that he had spent most of the year outside Britain, which added up to more than half his youngest daughter's life.^[5]In 1985 Head appeared as the character Phil Norton in Howards' Way as one of Lynne Howard's (Tracey Childs) love interests.

2000s

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.

Outside television work, he has released an album of songs with musician George Sarah entitled Music for Elevators. Early in his career he provided vocals for some of the tracks on the Chris de Burgh album The Getaway and the reading from The Tempest on "Don't Pay the Ferryman".

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

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 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.

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,^[6] with both Head and the BBC on board. 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.^[7] Head also narrated a BBC behind-the-scenes programme for the American television series Heroes, Heroes Unmasked. He has also been seen as Maurice Riley in the BBC drama The Invisibles alongside Warren Clarke.

 

Head with Paris Hilton and Bill Moseley at the 2007 Scream Awards

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.^[8] 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^[8] 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.^[9] Head played King Uther Pendragon, the father of Prince Arthur.

2010s

Head also provided voice-over work for the Nintendo Wii video game Flip's Twisted World, developed by Frozen North Productions.^[10] For his acting in the film Despite the Falling Snow he won the Best Supporting Actor award at the 2016 Prague Independent Film Festival.^[11] 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.

Personal life

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

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Lady Chatterley's Lover	Anton
1987	A Prayer for the Dying	Rupert
1988	La Collina del diavolo	Michael Toyle
1992	Woof Again! Why Me?		Direct-to-video release
2003	I'll Be There	Sam Gervasi
2004	Fat Slags	Victor
2005	Framing Frankie	Dennis Folley
2005	Imagine Me & You	Ned
2006	Scoop	Detective
2006	Little Britain Live	Prime Minister	Direct-to-video release
2007	Sparkle	Tony
2007	The Magic Door	George	Direct-to-video release
2007	Amelia and Michael	Michael	Short
2007	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street	Gentleman in Street	Uncredited role Cameo appearance
2008	Repo! The Genetic Opera	Nathan Wallace/Repo Man
2011	The Great Ghost Rescue	Prime Minister
2011	The Inbetweeners Movie	Will's Father
2011	Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance	Benedict
2011	The Iron Lady	Geoffrey Howe
2013	Underdogs	Adult Flash	Voice role
2013	Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters	Chiron
2013	Convenience	Barry
2014	Flying Home	Mr. Montgomery
2016	Despite the Falling Snow	Old Misha
2016	A Street Cat Named Bob	Jack Bowen
2018	Batman: Gotham by Gaslight	Alfred Pennyworth	Voice role Direct-to-video release
2021	School's Out Forever	Headmaster
2021	Let the Wrong One In	Henry

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Enemy at the Door	Clive Martel	2 episodes
1978	Lillie	William Le Breton	ITV miniseries
1978	Accident	Simon Lovell	Episode: "The Figures Man"
1979	Jackanory Playhouse	Spare	Episode: "The Christmas Cuckoo"
1979	The Mallens	Weir	2 episodes
1979	Secret Army	Hanslick	Episode: "A Safe Place"
1980	Love in a Cold Climate	Tony Kroesig	3 episodes
1981	Crown Court	Timothy Preston-Berry	Episode: "Hen Party"
1981	Bergerac	Bill	Episode: "See You in Moscow"
1981	BBC2 Playhouse	Chief Hook	Episode: "The Grudge Fight"
1984, 1988	The Comic Strip Presents...	Ricki Recording Studio Engineer	Episodes: "Slags", "More Bad News"
1985	C.A.T.S. Eyes	James Sinden	Episode: "Goodbye, Jenny Wren"
1985	Howards' Way	Phil Norton	5 episodes
1987	Boon	Richard Rathbone	Episode: "Day of the Yoke"
1988	Pulaski	Dudley Fielding	Episode: "The Price of Fame"
1988	Rockliffe's Babies	Chris Patterson	Episode: "A Trip to the Zoo"
1989	Hard Cases	DC 'Spider' Webb	Episode #2.6
1991	Woof!	Bentley	2 episodes
1993	The Detectives	Simon	Episode: "Acting Constables"
1993	Highlander: The Series	Allan Rothwood	Episode: "Nowhere to Run"
1994	Royce	Pitlock	Showtime television film
1995	VR.5	Oliver Sampson	10 episodes
1995	Ghostbusters of East Finchley	Terry	Episode #1.5
1995	NYPD Blue	Nigel Gibson	Episode: "Cold Heaters"
1996	Roger Roger	Jimmy Price	Television film
1997	Jonathan Creek	Adam Klaus	Episode: "The Wrestler's Tomb"
1997–2003	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Rupert Giles	121 episodes Main role (seasons 1–5); recurring role (seasons 6–7) Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television
1999	Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place	Dr Staretski	Episode: "Two Guys, a Girl and a Mother's Day"
2000	Best Actress	Colin Truemans	E! television film
2001	Silent Witness	Henry Hutton	Episode: "Two Below Zero"
2002	Spooks	Peter Salter	Episode: "Traitor's Gate"
2002	Fillmore!	Professor Third	Voice role Episodes: "Red Robins Don't Fly", "A Cold Day at X"
2002–2003	Manchild	James	15 episodes
2003, 2005	My Family	Richard Harper / Himself	2 episodes
2003	And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself	William Benton	HBO television film
2003	Reversals	Andrew Barton	ITV television film
2003–2006	Little Britain	Michael Stevens	23 episodes
2004	True Horror with Anthony Head	Presenter	5 episodes
2004	New Tricks	Sir Tim	Episode: "Painting on Loan"
2004	Monarch of the Glen	Chester Grant	4 episodes
2005	Murder Investigation Team	Stewart Masters	Episode #2.2
2005	Rose and Maloney	David Terry	Episode: "Annie Johnson"
2006	Hotel Babylon	Mr. Machin	Episode #1.2
2006	Doctor Who	Mr. Finch	Episode: "School Reunion"
2006	Children's Party at the Palace	Captain Hook	BBC television special
2006	Him and Us	Max Flash	Unsold television pilot
2007	Comic Relief 2007: The Big One	Various	Television special
2007	Persuasion	Sir Walter Elliot	Television film
2007	Totally Doctor Who	Baltazar	Voice role in The Infinite Quest
2007	Sensitive Skin	Tom Paine	Episodes: "The Signals", "Here I Am"
2007	Sold	Mr. Colubrine	6 episodes
2007–2008	Heroes Unmasked	Narrator	Series 1 & 2
2007–2009	Doctor Who Confidential	Narrator	30 episodes
2008	Freezing	Lindsay Posner	Episode #1.2
2008–2012	Merlin	Uther Pendragon	43 episodes
2008	The Invisibles	Maurice Riley	BBC One series
2009	Free Agents	Stephen Caudwell	Channel 4 TV series
2011–2012	Free Agents	Stephen	NBC TV series (US remake of the Channel 4 series of the same name)
2013	Dancing on the Edge	Donaldson	BBC Two series
2013	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Corningham	Episode: "U-KO'ed"
2013–2014	Warehouse 13	Paracelsus	4 episodes
2013–2015	You, Me & Them	Ed Walker	UKTV Gold series
2014–2015	Dominion	David Whele	Main cast
2015	Galavant	Galavant's Father^[12]	Episode: "My Cousin Izzy"
2015–2016	Yonderland	Nigel Maddox	3 episodes
2016	Drunk History	Admiral Horatio Nelson, Alexander Graham Bell	2 episodes
2016	Guilt	James Lahue	5 episodes
2017	Still Star-Crossed	Lord Silvestro Capulet	Series regular
2017	Shadowhunters	Angel Raziel	Voice role Episode: "Beside Still Water"
2018	Girlfriends	John	5 episodes
2018	The Split	Oscar Defoe	6 episodes
2018	Vanity Fair	Lord Steyne	3 episodes
2019	Jack Ryan	Rupert Thorne	2 episodes
2019–2022	Motherland	Bill	4 episodes
2020	The Stranger	Ed Price	8 episodes
2020	The Big Night In	Michael Stevens	TV special
2020	Robot Chicken	Rupert Giles	Voice role Episode: "Endgame"
2020–2021	Ted Lasso	Rupert Mannion	5 episodes
2021	Back	Charismatic Mike	Episode #2.2
2021	Feel Good	George Senior	2 episodes
2021	The Canterville Ghost	Sir Simon de Canterville	4 episodes
2022	Bridgerton	Lord Sheffield

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007–2012	Bleak Expectations	Gently Benevolent & Jeremy Sourquill
2010	Ghost Stories by Walter de la Mare	The Reader	First broadcast on BBC Radio 7 – Mon 27 December 2010 Subsequent repeats on Radio 4 Extra Episode 4 of 5: "A Recluse"
2011–2014	Cabin Pressure	Herc Shipwright	Episodes: "Newcastle", "Ottery St Mary", "Rotterdam", "Vaduz", "Yverdon-Les-Bains", "Zürich, Part 1", "Zürich, Part 2"
2012	Clayton Grange	Saunders
2013	Neverwhere	Mr. Croup
2018	The Archers	Robin Fairbrother

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985–1986	Yonadab^[13]	Absalom
1990–1991	The Rocky Horror Show^[14]	Dr. Frank-N-Furter	As part of the 1990-91 West End revival production at the Piccadilly Theatre
1994	Rope^[15]	Rupert Cadell
2005	Otherwise Engaged^[16]	Jeff Golding	Directed by Simon Curtis, also starring Richard E. Grant and David Bamber
2010	Six Degrees of Separation^[17]	Flan Kittredge	Also starring Lesley Manville and Obi Abili
2015	Ticking^[18]	Edward (Simon's father)
2017	Love In Idleness^[19]	Sir John Fletcher	Also starring Eve Best
2018	The Muppets Take the O2^[20]	Himself	Head attempts to read William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", but joins a dance party with Pepe the King Prawn instead; he also joined the cast for a rendition of "Rainbow Connection".

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Destroy All Humans! 2	Posonby	^[21]

Music

• Face in the Window – EP (1983 album) with his band Two way
• "Sweet Transvestite" (1991 single) Chrysalis Records, 7″ single, 12″ single, CD single, and shaped picture CD^[4]
• 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^[22]

References

1. . The Official Anthony Head Site. Archived from the original on 2 June 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2008.
2. "Anthony Head: Why I'm happy Eve Myles is my 'girlfriend'". Metro newspaper. 30 October 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
3. . lewisslade.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2007.
4. McHorse, Shawn (1997–2011). "Anthony Stewart Head". RockyMusic.
5. Palmer, Katie (3 December 2020). "Giles Buffy Actor: Why did Anthony Stewart Head really leave as Watcher Giles?". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
6. "Television News, Reviews and TV Show Recaps – HuffPost TV". The Huffington Post.
7. "Persuasion 2007 Casting News". AustenBlog. 29 August 2006.
8. "Darren Lynn Bousman: Repossessed". SuicideGirls.com. 7 November 2008. from the original on 18 December 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
9. "Richard Wilson and Anthony Head lead cast in Merlin, a fantasy drama for BBC One". bbc.co.uk. 17 March 2008. from the original on 23 March 2008. Retrieved 19 March 2008.
10. Gladney, Mitch (10 August 2010). "Flip's Twisted World Developer Diary: The Story of Flip's Twisted World". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
11. "A trio of awards for Despite The Falling Snow". Enlightenment Productions. 24 August 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
12. "Disney General Entertainment Content Press".
13. "Production of Yonadab". Theatricalia. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
14. David Hutchison (11 October 2015). "Anthony Head: 'We're the only artists in the world who don't practise'". The Stage. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
15. Paul Taylor (13 April 1994). "THEATRE / Murder most horrid: Paul Taylor finds chilling parallels in Keith Baxter's production of Patrick Hamilton's Rope at Wyndham's". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
16. Michael Billington (1 November 2005). "Otherwise Engaged". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
17. Dominic Cavendish (23 December 2009). "Six Degrees of Separation at the Old Vic". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
18. Paul Taylor (15 October 2015). "Ticking, Trafalgar Studios, theatre review: Let's just get this execution on the road". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
19. Sarah Crompton (20 March 2017). "Review: Love in Idleness (Menier Chocolate Factory)". WhatsOnStage.com. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
20. Bruce Dessau (6 July 2018). "News: David Tennant, Kylie Minogue, Adam Hills Join The Muppets". Beyond The Joke. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
21. "Anthony Head (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 25 September 2021. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
22. https://www.amazon.com/Staring-At-The-Sun/dp/B001EDB1AU^{[dead link]}

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anthony Stewart Head.

• , Anthony Head at the British Film Institute
• Anthony Head at IMDb
• Watch Anthony Head in the short film Amelia and Michael
• Anthony Head at British Comedy Guide

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)
• , TheTorchOnline.com (June 2009)
• Biographies of Giles and Head at "Buffyguide"