Anthony Head, Buffy and Ted Lasso Star, Dead at 72

Anthony Head, the English actor best known for his role as Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Rupert on Ted Lasso, has died at the age of 72. In a statement to the BBC, Head’s daughters Emily and Daisy confirmed he died peacefully on June 5 due to complications of pneumonia. “It has been, and forever will be, an honor and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed firsthand the impact both he and his work have had on so many,” they wrote.

Head was a beloved character actor, working in television, film, radio, and theater, though he is best known to elder millennials for his turn as Rupert Giles, the librarian and watcher on Buffy. As Giles, Head brought a soft authority and inimitable wit. He might have just been the funniest character on a show full of very funny characters. Over the course of his almost half-century-long career, Head also appeared in a number of musical favorites like Repo! The Genetic Opera, and he played Freddie Trumper during the original West End run of Chess. When speaking to Vulture about his villain turn in Ted Lasso, Head said that for him, “Any part is about playing a person, not a character. All of us have a lot of levels.”