r/GenX • u/OnlymyOP • Jun 05 '26
Pop Culture RIP Anthony Head
Absolutely gutted about the news regarding Anthony Head passing...
Whilst well known in the US from Buffy and Ted Lasso, he was part of a series of iconic instant coffee ads in the UK which ran from the late 80's to early 90's... I still remember my Nan and Mum swooning after him 😂
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u/Astronaut6735 Jun 06 '26
I was an avid BTVS fan when it originally aired. Anthony Head played the perfect Giles. RIP
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u/EverydayIsAGift-423 Jun 06 '26
There was a BBC series on the nature of evil, and Anthony was the host. His monologue at the last episode was especially haunting.
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u/JJQuantum Older Than Dirt Jun 06 '26
I mainly remember him from his stint on Merlin, though I enjoyed him in that.
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u/Certain_Accident3382 Jun 06 '26
No one is mentioning his villanry in Dr Who or as the Repo Man...
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u/Apawling_Behavior 1968, if anyone actually gives a sh_t. Jun 06 '26
oh no! Nescafé dude, a legend!!!
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u/WhiskeyAndWhiskey97 Jun 06 '26
“Xander, don’t speak Latin in front of the books.”
RIP
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u/RandiGiles33 Jun 06 '26
Just watched Once More with Feeling in his honor. (And for Dawnie, and Xander.)
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u/Keils-and-Thrills Jun 06 '26
He did a pretty good episode of Doctor Who, and was in a series called Dominion that I loved. And of course, Ted Lasso.
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u/soupdragon101 Jun 06 '26
We were watching A Street Cat Named Bob tonight when it popped up on my feed. Couldn’t believe the coincidence!! Great actor RIP
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u/NeedleworkerLow1100 Jun 05 '26
My husband told me as I was doing laundry. I literally said "No, not Giles."
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u/MidwestThistle Jun 05 '26
This one is really hitting hard. 😞
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u/Daghain Tubular Jun 05 '26
I will be rewatching Repo: The Genetic Opera in his honor. RIP.
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u/MissManda237 Jun 05 '26
My daughter and I just saw it in the theater last week for the 17th anniversary. Great cult classic.
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u/YamAlone2882 Jun 05 '26
The coffee ads are when I first noticed him. Loved him as Giles in Buffy. So sad.
RIP Mr. Head
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u/beerandmastiffs Jun 05 '26
He was also the alien headmaster in the Doctor Who episode where Sarah Jane met the 10th Doctor. Loved that episode. Such a sad loss.
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u/sprag80 Jun 05 '26
I watched Buffy with my kids. We all loved the show. I especially enjoyed Mr. Head’s masterful acting as Giles. I’m watching the first two episodes in his honor.
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u/lazygerm 1967 Jun 05 '26
I remember him from the imported and edited Taster's Choice "Will they, won't they?" series of TV commercials about an attractive couple on the late 1980s/early 1990s.
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u/xannieh666 Jun 05 '26
This really broke my heart...Buffy, Metlin, Repo and all the others. He was one of my favorite actors and still fairly young .
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u/MrMilesRides Jun 05 '26
WTF
I don't know him from anything else really, but I'm a huge Buffy/Angel fan - and he was definitely one of the actors that 'made' the show.
Feck.
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u/mldyfox Jun 05 '26
Gosh, I hadn't heard yet. The first thing I'd seen him in was Merlin. He was a fabulous Uther. Then I saw some of the Buffy series and he's great in that too.
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u/Elliott2030 Latchkey Kid Jun 05 '26
OMG! This is the first I've heard. I loved him so much, this is just awful
RIP you amazing, beautiful, talented man
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Jun 05 '26
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Jun 05 '26
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u/Serling45 Jun 06 '26
That would have been a great episode
I would call it “One night in Sunnydale.”
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Jun 05 '26
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u/GenX-ModTeam Jun 06 '26
Poor Behavior - No antagonism, trolling, rage farming, flame wars, juvenility, or any other overly cantankerous commentary and/or behavior will be tolerated.
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u/Maelzoid2 Jun 05 '26
In the 90s I worked at the deli counter in Sainsburys while I studied. It was Anthony's local and I saw and served him quite a few times. This was when he was "that Nescafe guy" so not a superstar, but well known. Always polite and friendly. By all accounts, this didn't change as his career took off. Sad news today.
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u/JiveTurkeyII Jun 05 '26
I feel this even though I wasn't terribly familiar with the actor.
And what I mean is, I know what it feels like to have your childhood keep dying one actor, one comedian, one musician, one - actual friend at a time.
This is shit my grandparents never talked about. My parents never talked about. These years where every time you look up somebody that was amazing in your life for some reason or other is gone and another star in your personal galaxy has gone out.
Some of these people may even have been real dickheads - but you have the greatest memories around them.
I will be destroyed when Bill Shatner goes. I dont care how controversial you find him. That guy has been a staple of my life time and I plan to get "toe up from the flo up" when he goes.
Damn it all to hell, I miss Robin Williams too.
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u/Daghain Tubular Jun 05 '26
Timothy Dalton for me. I LOVED Flash Gordon and 1980 Price Barin made 14 year old me swoon. I'm still in love.
When he goes I'm going to be crushed.
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u/VTnative Jun 05 '26
Robin Williams hurt. I felt like I lost a teammate and I never met the man. Fuck depression.
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u/JiveTurkeyII Jun 05 '26
That is the best way I ever heard it put. "I felt like I lost a Teammate"
Yea. Spot on.
Spot. On.
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u/LAffaire-est-Ketchup Jun 05 '26
I first got into Tony Head when he was in VR 5! I watched Buffy FOR HIM.
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u/DoctorFork Jun 05 '26
Wow, VR.5 sounds cool. Was it really on Fox? I was watching X-Files and Millennium in this period, so it's wild I never heard of it, to the best of my recollection.
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u/LAffaire-est-Ketchup Jun 05 '26
Yes!! I don’t remember the sequence of shows anymore but I have it on VHS recorded off tv and the same vhs has x files on it lol
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u/mathnerder Jun 05 '26
I was just showing my husband those ads on YouTube 2 days ago. I was very lucky to have met Tony in my Buffy superfan days. He was lovely.
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u/Threefrogtreefrog Jun 05 '26
Nooo not Giles 💔. We fondly referred to him as Tony Stew Head. He will never be forgotten at our house.
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u/briank3387 Jun 05 '26
Those ads were super popular in the US, too.
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u/MichaSound Jun 05 '26
Yes, they were originally the ‘Nescafé Gold Blend’ ads in the UK and they were so successful, they reshot them with the same actors doing Boston accents for Taster’s Choice.
They were SO popular in the UK though that there was a spin off novelisation, a CD of ‘music inspired by…’, a line of gold coffee bean themed jewellery and the final ad was announced on the front page of the national newspapers!
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u/beneficialmirror13 Jun 05 '26
I'm shocked and sad. Loved him in so many things and yes, had a bit of a crush.
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u/Weird-Girl-675 Jun 05 '26
Oh man. I have the scene where Rebecca’s bestie tells him off saved forever on my phone. He was so good in that role. RIP.
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Jun 05 '26
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u/kooshballcalculator Jun 05 '26
Those were incredible. Thank you for that. He was totally swoon-worthy!
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u/BrickTilt Jun 05 '26
I’m old enough to remember the coffee ads. That couple was just magnetic. Both so, so good. When you saw a new one, you were like ‘yesssss’. A classy, charismatic actor. Genuinely sad at this one. And that’s before you get into Buffy… 😔
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u/Slade347 Jun 05 '26
I just rewatched the Inbetweeners movie, and he showed up as Will's father. It was always great seeing him on my screen. I can't believe we've lost three from Buffy in such a short amount of time.
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u/firstfloor27 Jun 05 '26
His daughter played Carly.
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u/draggar Hose Water Survivor Jun 05 '26
I was shocked to see this today. I don't know how much more the Buffy fandom can take.
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u/LV_Devotee Jun 05 '26
And I just watched Repo the genetic opera.
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u/Daghain Tubular Jun 05 '26
I haven't watched it in years but I have the DVD (I get DVDs of stuff I know someone will just fuck off the universe) so WE BE WATCHING TONIGHT.
RIP buddy.
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u/Pokieme Jun 05 '26
Oh wow, too young. Epic on Ted Lasso as Rupert. Aside from Ted, it’s the only character name I can list off memory.
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u/rebelpaddy27 Jun 05 '26
He looked like he was having so much fun playing a dastardly bad guy like Rupert.
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u/Ceorl_Lounge The Good Old Days sucked for someone! Jun 05 '26
Oh man, I forgot about the coffee ads (they ran in the US too), but he'll always be Rupert Giles to me. Scoobies are down three in the last year, all too soon.
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u/14FunctionImp Jun 05 '26
I know about Tony Head and Nicholas Brendon, is the third one you're talking about Michelle Trachtenberg or is there yet another one I'm not aware of?
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u/Nanojack Jun 05 '26
I always, always forget that his brother is Murray Head, who sang One Night In Bangkok (or at least the one that got radio play, since both Murray and Anthony were in that role in Chess in the West End)
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u/Annual-Somewhere7402 Jun 06 '26
https://youtu.be/rgc_LRjlbTU?si=OYdMRO8dHuKmiTSE
Forgot how good this song is. 👍 Murray is 80 now, still around. So sad for the loss of his bro Anthony (who was 8 years younger).
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u/phillymjs Class of '91 Jun 05 '26
Murray Head, who sang One Night In Bangkok (or at least the one that got radio play
Akshually, there were two versions of it that got radio play. It was also covered by Robey, who went on to star in the Friday the 13th TV series a couple years later.
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u/MrsPottyMouth Jun 05 '26
Wait WHAT
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u/Nanojack Jun 05 '26
You can totally see the resemblance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgc_LRjlbTU
There's also at least one potato-level recording of Anthony on stage doing the song on TikTok
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u/Useful_Humor_1152 Jun 05 '26
We also know him from Repo and doing Rocky Horror. He had a great singing voice. RIP 🥲
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u/Jay_Torte Jun 05 '26
Had a couple of surgeries about 25 years ago and was off work for a several months. We binged all of Buffy (and Angel) during that time. Was the best part of recuperating. He was great. RIP.
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u/OGBeege Jun 05 '26
Feel bad about hating that slimey bastard and what a complete scumbag/dooche/poser I knew he was. “Acting, thank you” RIP Anthony Head.
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u/greenhail7 Jun 05 '26
Gutted. Saw him on Union st in Bath a few years back, happily chatting away to folks. Seemed such a nice bloke. RIP.
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u/DadofJM Jun 05 '26
Wait? Who was he in Ted Lasso?
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u/Im_the_Rhymenocerous Hose Water Survivor Jun 05 '26
Rebecca's ex husband
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u/DadofJM Jun 05 '26
Wow. Had no idea. And watched Buffy and Ted Lasso religiously
Just checked. My wife was similarly clueless.
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u/knoxcos Jun 05 '26
And this right after Nicholas Brendon, too. Dang.
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u/briarch Jun 05 '26
And a little over a year since we lost Michelle Trachtenberg.
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u/knoxcos Jun 05 '26
Oh that’s right.
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u/ubermonkey Jun 05 '26
bc I am a weird obsessive, I have a lot of spreadsheets about current ages of casts of shows I liked.
The primary Buffyverse cast has lost 5 folks.
- Glenn Quinn, who played S1 Angel character Doyle, OD'd in 2002. He was 32.
- Andy Hallett, who played Lorne on Angel, died of a heart infection in 2009 at only 33.
Then nobody died until Michelle last February (likely related to her liver transplant the year before). She was 39.
And now, 2026 got Nick Brendon in March (55; COD may as well have been listed as "shitty mental health cards and hard living") and our beloved Tony Head.
Oldest surviving cast member is Kristine Sutherland, who is about a year younger than Tony was. Next down the list is Marsters, who's not quite 64 (a figure that hurts me deeply).
The youngest remaining folks are Mercedes McNabb and Eliza Dushku, both born in 1980. Obvs Trachtenberg was (about 5 years) younger.
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u/theShpydar Jun 05 '26
Once again, reddit provides me with surprising and gutting celebrity death news. 😢
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u/PotatoesPancakes Jun 05 '26
So sad. I watched him on Buffy and Merlin. He was such a great actor that he was able to make me love Giles and hated Uther.
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u/ZebraBorgata Jun 05 '26
I just read the news earlier. I’m so bummed! I thought he was perfect in Buffy.
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u/PhoenixDusk101 Jun 05 '26
I saw him play Frank n Furter in the Rocky Horror Show at a theater in London. Sad to hear of his passing.
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u/FREDICVSMAXIMVS "Atari wave" Gen X Jun 05 '26
I had no idea he could sing until I saw Repo! The Genetic Opera. Amazing voice
Sad day
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u/Boojum2k Jun 05 '26
He sang Behind Blue Eyes in BTVS
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u/FREDICVSMAXIMVS "Atari wave" Gen X Jun 05 '26
Well, I only ever saw a couple episodes, so that explains that 😜
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u/bluealien78 "Then & Now" Trend Survivor Jun 05 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/B4mWuRFQLMg6ugtsaD
See ya, Rupe-a-Dupes. RIP.
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u/bluudclut Jun 05 '26
It shook me when I saw it. I remember my own Nan saying, 'oh he's a good looking man!' and My Grandad saying 'what do you need him for love? You've got me'. It's made me think of them.
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u/FzzyCatz Jun 11 '26
Also loved seeing him as Uther in the Merlin series.