There are plenty of reasons to love Anthony Head. Mainly because he was a supremely talented actor.
It was sad to read that Head had died after complications from pneumonia a few days ago. It was one of the rare times I audibly gasped when I saw the post on Instagram regarding the death of an actor. The last time was when Matthew Perry died. The caption detailed that his daughters, Emily and Daisy Head, had confirmed the news stating that their father had died peacefully, surrounded by his family.
Most people knew Head as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While there is so much to admire in his work there, from the benefits of being bookish to his sartorial tastes and his incredible performance, he was also, it seems, and no surprise there if you’ve seen him in interviews, Head was also a wonderful person.
“’Tell Giles I figured it out and I’m OK’ Well I don’t have it figured our and I’m not ok,” Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote in her Instagram post dedicated to Head.
“But I know I’m the lucky one because I knew you. Thank you to Taisy and Emily who not only shared their dad with, but with the world.”
Rupert Giles, a character that Head truly made come to life, was so important in pop culture as a figure. He redefined the mentor figure in story, from older and wise or distant academic, to making being smart and book super cool.
Giles was intelligent and knowledgeable, but also awkward, funny, lonely, and human. He wasn’t simply there to provide the hero with the answer, to guide them on their journey but he had his own history, mistakes, desires, and character arc.
In the late 1990s where we being smart on TV wasn’t that interesting, wasn’t front and centre, Head made Giles cool and attractive through his love of history and books.
He was a layered character with a complicated past, that helped redefine, or at least give another version or archetype of masculinity on screen while somehow also being a surrogate father figure.
The DNA of the Giles character that Head helped to perfect was influential on so many later intellectual, complicated, academic figures across novels, comics and TV shows.
Yes, there is so much to admire there in Head’s role as Giles, but I personally admired him because of an entirely different role, one that he brought the same duality to.
Head was incredible as Uther Pendragon in the BBC’s fantasy-adventure drama Merlin. The show which four seasons long (much too short in my opinion) and was aimed at young adults but had a large following outside that demographic (hello, me!)
Loosely based on the Arthurian legends, the series reimagined Arthur and Merlin as contemporaries, turning their relationship into a friendship rather than the traditional mentor-student dynamic. And while this detail diverted the story from its origins, I suspect that, a lot of the details and timeline were based on the BRILLIANT trilogy by Mary Stewart (a must read).
Head played Uther, Arthur’s father, with tremendous conviction despite this being a show for “children”. He was warm, charismatic, and genuinely loving in one scene, then terrifyingly ruthless in the next. So very good. Head was so talented, able to convey opposing facets of one character convincingly, making his performances feel present and compelling.
Again here, Head was able to blend in a multitude of characteristics, he was a king and a father, a widow, and a lover, he was proud, stubborn, emotionally repressed, honourable, controlling, protective, and also funny.
For me, that particular talent of melding conflicting traits believable was at its finest in his performance as Sir Walter Elliot in the 2007 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Love that film so much (it puts Netflix’s adaption to true shame. Let’s not talk about it.
As you can see in the clip below, Head was marvellous as Sir Walter Elliot because he never played him as a caricature, despite the fact that the role could easily have been reduced to one.
While it was a smaller role in the film Head stole each scene and helped create a foundation to the story, giving context as to the family and world Anne Elliot came from by effortlessly leaning in between comedy and drama through Sir Walter Elliot’s vanity and obsession with appearances.
It would be easy to laugh at Sir Walter Elliot’s and yet, still, Head somehow grounded the character with confidence and aristocratic authority so that he felt real rather than ridiculous.
Head was just so very good. A rare talent that I wish we had more of his work to enjoy. I’ve yet to see Ted Lasso, of which I hear, unsurprisingly, that Head was brilliant in, and I will surely indulge.