Name: Anthony Stewart Head
Character: Rupert ‘Ripper’ Giles
Date of Birth: 20 February 1954
Place of Birth: Camden, London, UK
Web Presence: Official Site | Twitter | Facebook | IMDB | Wikipedia
Appearances
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER –
Season One: Series Regular
Season Two: Series Regular
Season Three: Series Regular
Season Four: Series Regular
Season Five: Series Regular
Season Six: Bargaining Part 1 | Bargaining Part 2 | Flooded | Life Serial | All The Way | Once More, With Feeling | Tabula Rasa | Two To Go | Grave
Season Seven: Lessons | Beneath You | Sleeper | Bring on the Night | Showtime | The Killer in Me | First Date | Lies My Parents Told Me | Dirty Girls | Empty Places | Touched | End of Days | Chosen
Bio
Tony was born in Camden, North London, England, to actress Helen Shingler and documentary producer Seafield Head. Tony has an older brother, Murray, who is also an actor and the pair grew up in Hampton, London. Tony attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and intended to go into the musical profession. Tony managed to combine both acting and music by appearing in several musical productions including The Rocky Horror Show. He landed several small roles in British TV but it was his casting in a series of Gold Blend commercials that brought him to fame. The success of these commercials, however lead to Tony’s career coming to something of a stand still in the UK and so he decided to move to LA where he was much better received. Here he signed up for acting classes and soon landed a role in the short lived series VR-5. Undeterred, Tony remained in LA and was soon cast in the role of Giles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. After five years on the show, Tony decided that he wanted to spend more time at home with his partner and family and returned to live in England, appearing in the last two seasons of Buffy as a recurring special guest star.
Since returning to the UK, Tony has had no problems obtaining roles in both TV, most note ably comedy series, ‘Little Britain’, and theatre where he received an award for his performance alongside Richard E Grant in Otherwise Engaged. Most recently he has appeared in the revived Doctor Who series for the BBC and a pilot sitcom, ‘Him & Us’ based around the life of Elton John. Tony has also released an album in collaboration with George Sarah entitled ‘Music for Elevators’.
He now divides his time between the UK and the States and has appeared in numerous TV series on both sides of the pond, including a starring role in Merlin (2008-2012) both the UK and US versions of Free Agents (2009 and 2011 to 2012 respectively) and Warehouse 13 as well as appearing in The Inbetweeners movie (2011) and as Geoffrey Howe in The Iron Lady (2011). Most recently he has featured on Drunk History UK (2016) and is currently stars alongside Miranda Richardson in Girlfriends for ITV.
Both his daughters, Emily and Daisy, have followed in the family footsteps and Emily appeared alongside her father in The Inbetweeners movie.
Anthony and his long-term partner Sarah have recently become Ambassadors for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home of which both have been avid supporters.
