British Actor Anthony Head, Known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dies at 72

British actor Anthony Head died at age 72 of complications from pneumonia, his daughters Emily and Daisy Head said in a statement released Friday. Head passed away peacefully and surrounded by family. Head was best known for playing Rupert Giles across all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from 1997 to 2003.

He later appeared in Ted Lasso, Little Britain, and Merlin. "It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father, Anthony Head," the statement read. "How lucky we are to know we are able to watch him doing what he loved, even when he is no longer with us," they added.

They asked that their privacy be respected. Emily and Daisy Head called it "an honor and a privilege" to be Anthony Head's daughters. "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," the pair added.

The sisters said while their "grief is far greater than the hole he has left behind," they know their dad's "legacy will live on" thanks to the popular TV shows he was in. Head's death came less than six months after Sarah Fisher, his partner since 1982 and the mother of his two daughters, died at age 61. " In a Dec.

29, 2025 Facebook post, they said Fisher did not want a funeral. Head and Fisher were together from 1982 until her death. In 2018, Head told the Daily Telegraph that Fisher never wanted to get married.

"She just isn't interested. She says f–k off and then runs off to throw up," he said at the time. Head added: "I just can't imagine my life without Sarah. " Head's Buffy co-star Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Dawn Summers, died in February 2025 from complications of diabetes mellitus.

Page Six reported that Anthony Head's Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-stars Michelle Trachtenberg and Nicholas Brendon both died within the last two years.