RIP Rupert Giles/Mannion
To be honest, I wondered if the uncertainty about the date of his death was because he died alone and was discovered only much later.
According to the statement from his daughters, he died from complications due to pneumonia, which would suggest to me that he had been in a hospital, or under medical care. But, we may never know.
he had a wonderful role in “cabin pressure”. love that radio series.
My daughter and I just listened to the whole series, her first time. We love it and yes, he’s amazing.
He was great in everything. I didn’t watch Buffy, so Merlin was where I became the most familiar with him. And here he is being hilarious in the Off Menu podcast.
The Buffyverse has had a lot of deaths - “Doyle,” “Lorne,” “Dawn,” “Xander,” and now “Giles” - and most of them died quite young
I first saw him in the commercials, but his first acting role was in VR5, sort of an audition for Giles in Buffy.
Imagine any story that could really use a bookish ‘exposition’ guy — who maybe toggles between polite stammering and fatherly snarking — and then ask what happens if he’s also a cold-blooded killer and a hot-blooded lover.
(But still a polite stammerer; I can’t stress that enough.)
Thanks to Buffy, I really kinda got used to the idea that he was one of those folks, like Robert Louis Stevenson or James Earl Jones, who are always known by their first, middle and last names. Seeing him billed as just Anthony Head or even Tony Head just never sounded right to me. I want all three barrels!
Cabin Pressure is an all-around excellent show but if you want Head at his best “radio evil” you need Bleak Expectations in which he played the evilest man in the world Mr Gently Benevolent. His evil laugh was extraordinary but indescribable.
One of his wonderful minor roles was as the British Prime Minister in Little Britain. Great, solid feet-first jump into the role to get maximum laughs out of it.
Maybe he was credited that way so that he wouldn’t be confused with actor Anthony Heald.
No, he used his middle name because the Screen Actors Guild and the Actors’ Equity Association require actors to use names that are different from any already registered actor’s name. There was already an actor named Anthony Head. Quite a few actors had to change part of their names or add a new part of their name to avoid violating that rule. Other actors changed their names for other reasons.