RIP: Anthony Stewart Head…

“I’d like to test that theory…”

News comes today of the sad passing of Anthony Stewart Head, a versatile and respected actor probably best known for key genre roles over several decades. Some will know him best as Giles, the librarian and Watcher with a darker past and hidden depths in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but he also appeared in Merlin as King Uther Pendragon and the memorable School Reunion episode of Doctor Who that reintroduced Elizabeth Sladen’s Sarah-Jane.

Other roles included Rupert Mannion in Ted Lasso, Sir Simon de Canterville in the BBC‘s The Canterville Ghost, David Whele in Dominion, Frank N’ Furter and the Narrator in various productions of The Rocky Horror Show  and Allan Rothwood in an episode of Highlander: The Series. His distinctive voice also led to playing the likes of the evil Baltazar in the animated Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest and Valentine in Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time,  Robin Fairbrother in The Archers and Alfred Pennyworth in Gotham by Gaslight, amongst many others.

In a statement to the BBC, his family confirmed his passing at the age of 72 and said it was peaceful and due to complications due pneumonia. His death comes after the passing of his long-term partner Sarah Fisher, with whom he had been together since the early 1980s and shared two daughters.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father,” his daughters said. “It has been, and forever will be, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed firsthand the impact both he and his work have had on so many. We know how dearly he will be missed by friends, colleagues, and fans of the shows he was in — he loved his job very much, and he always considered himself incredibly lucky, to have been able to work alongside such exceptionally talented people, in such wonderful productions, across a career that spanned several decades.”

I had the pleasure of sitting down with the actor several times during his career and he was completely approachable, blunt and honest and with a wry wit that began to particularly show in later seasons of Buffy.

Shortly prior to the relaunch of Doctor Who in 2005, I asked him whether there was any truth to the fact he might have been approached for the title role and he said that was not the case (though Buffy mover-and-shaker David Fury revealed in the same piece for Dreamwatch that the Who team had been in informal contact with Mutant Enemy, generally talking about their approach to cult genre dynamics). I remember seeing UK online outlet Ananova conflate the two interviews and say that I’d reported that Head was confirmed for the Time Lord role, which was never true, though I’m sure he would have been excellent.

Sadly, this is just the most recent of deaths of the cast of Buffy. Michelle Trachtenberg (who played Dawn Summers) passed at the age of 39 in February 2025 and Nicholas Brendon (who played Xander Harris) died in March 2026 from suspected long-standing cardiac issues.