The campaign was a bona fide hit, with Maughan and Head reprising their roles in a version for Gold Blend’s American cousin, Taster’s Choice. And from there, the roles only got more varied. On British TV and radio, Head was as ubiquitous as Ant & Dec are today (ask your local Brit). Name a British TV show and, statistically speaking, there was a chance he appeared in at least one episode: Spooks, My Family, The Inbetweeners, Doctor Who, Motherland, Sensitive Skin, New Tricks, and more period dramas than you could shake a cravat at. Before Little Britain was an albatross around the neck of anyone involved in its production, it was a wildly popular sketch comedy series that received a vital bit of grounding from Head. Playing Prime Minister/crush object to twisted political aide Sebastian Love (David Walliams), Head cut a Tony Blair-esque figure of charm and decorum, bringing a believable gravitas to a cartoon of a show. He was good at that. Who else could make the Arthurian nonsense of Merlin feel like Hamlet?
And when a show was of a higher caliber, Head made it even better. He was quite literally the adult in the room, keeping the raging teenage hormones, sassy Gen-X flair, and comedic fantasy of Buffy The Vampire Slayer in check. Mild-mannered but never a fool, bespectacled librarian and keeper of the slayer legacy Rupert Giles was both father figure and role model to Buffy’s Scooby gang. Once more, he approached what could have been a thankless role with sincerity and dignity, and through his relationships with Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), and Xander (Nicholas Brendon), the supernatural evils of Sunnydale felt real, and so did the emotional stakes that came with them. We still mourn the Giles spin-off that never happened.
And we haven’t even begun to discuss Head’s non-TV work! His scenery-chewing turn in the cult musical Repo! The Genetic Opera delighted many a midnight movie fan, a fitting follow-up to his portrayal of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1990 West End revival of The Rocky Horror Show. He starred in radio comedies like Bleak Expectations and Cabin Pressure, and even turned up in the long-running soap opera The Archers, which is the most British thing an actor could ever do. He felt particularly at home, though underutilized, in the second season of Bridgerton, a show with an extremely Head-esque blend of romance, drama, and warmth.
There were a lot of these one-off roles and cameos in the later years of Head’s career—the blessing and the curse of an actor who could do CIA action for Jack Ryan and musical comedy for Galavant. But then he’d get a proper, meaty character arc and remind you of just how good he was. It’s little wonder that Ted Lasso is sharing headline space with Buffy in so many of the obituaries published today; Head’s portrayal of sleazy ex-Richmond FC owner Rupert Mannion challenged the show’s core optimism and faith in humanity with delicious zeal. It’s a brilliant inversion of the charisma that won the hearts of so many Nescafé drinkers, but even Rupert is eventually shown to be human in Ted Lasso’s eyes. Over the course of the series, his cruelty reveals a neediness and lack of control that leaves the character looking more pathetic than villainous. It might not have worked with anyone else in the role.
It was easy to take an actor like Anthony Head for granted. The entertainment industry is built on versatile character actors who turn up, steal the scene, then leave. That range, applied across numerous genres, media, and budget levels, made him ubiquitous—and on both sides of the pond, which is an achievement in and of itself. Without Head, TV is a little less bright, a lot less sensual, and without one of its most reliable presences.
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