Anthony Head, Buffy And Ted Lasso Star, Dies Aged 72

British actor Anthony Head has died at the age of 72.

After making his start in the theatre world, Anthony became best known for his on-screen work in the likes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Little Britain in the 90s and 2000s.

More recently, he played Rupert Mannion in the sports comedy Ted Lasso, for which he and his co-stars were nominated for an Actor Award in 2024.

On Friday, his daughters Emily and Daisy shared the news of their father’s sudden death in a joint statement, confirming that he had died “peacefully” and “surrounded by his family” as the result of “complications due to pneumonia”.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father,” the two said (as reported by BBC News). “He passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family.”

The statement continued: “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.”

“How dearly he will be missed by friends, colleagues and fans of the show he was in”, the sisters noted, adding that their dad “always considered himself incredibly lucky” to be in his line of work, and that his “legacy will live on”.

Anthony began his career in the late 70s, and was introduced to a whole new audience when he began playing the title character’s mentor Rupert Giles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer in the late 1990s.

He went on to play fictitious prime minister Michael Stevens in the sketch comedy Little Britain, Uther Pendragon in Merlin and Oscar Defoe in The Split and Bill in Motherland.

Since then, he’s also appeared in the Netflix thriller The Stranger and the period drama Bridgerton.

On the big screen, he portrayed deputy prime minister Geoffrey Howe in the award-winning Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady, Jack Bowen in A Street Cat Named Bob and Chiron in Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters.

He also shared the screen with his daughter Emily in the first movie spin-off of the TV comedy The Inbetweeners.

Anthony’s long-term partner Sarah Fisher, with whom he’d been in a relationship since 1982, died last year at the age of 61.

Sarah was the mother of Anthony’s two children, 37-year-old Emily and 35-year-old Daisy, both of whom are also actors.