Anthony Head

Anthony Stewart Head (born 20 February 1954) is an English actor and musician. He rose to fame in the UK following his role in the Gold Blend couple television advertisements for Nescafé Gold Blend, and is known for his roles as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Uther Pendragon in Merlin and as Herc Shipwright i  BBC Radio 4's Cabin Pressure. Early life Head was born in Camden Town, London. His father was Seafield Laurence Stewart Murray Head (1919–2009), a documentary filmmaker and a founder of Verity Films, and his mother was actress Helen Shingler. They had married in 1944 in Watford. His older brother is actor and singer Murray Head. Both brothers have played the part of Freddie Trumper in the musical Chess at the Prince Edward Theatre, London, with Murray a part of the original cast in 1986, whilst Anthony was in the final cast in 1989. Head was educated at Sunbury Grammar School and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).  Career In discussing why he chose acting as a career, in an interview in 2013 he said that 'When it's in your family, it's a choice, it's there. It's not a jump to say: ‘I want to act.’ When I was six I was in a little show my mother’s friends organised, playing the Emperor in The Emperor’s New Clothes. I remember thinking: ‘This is the business, this is what I want to do.’ His first role was in the musical Godspell; this led to roles in television on both BBC and ITV, one of his earliest being an appearance in the series Enemy at the Door (ITV, 1978–1980). In the early 1980s he sang with the band Red Box. In the late 1980s, he appeared in a storyline series of twelve coffee commercials with Sharon Maughan for Nescafé Gold Blend. (A version made for North America featured the American brand name Taster's Choice.) The soap opera nature of the commercials brought him wider recognition, along with a part in the Children's ITV comedy drama Woof! Personal life Head lives with his partner Sarah Fisher and has two daughters, Emily, born in December 1988, and Daisy, born in 1991, who are both actresses. OnSaturday Kitchen, in September 2010, Head declared he is a pescetarian, he later clarified that statement in a tweet on 23 October 2012; in reply to the question "I read on Wikipedia that you're a pescetarian. Is that true?" he replied, "Ovopescolactarian xxx"