Anthony Head

Overview

Born
February 20, 1954 · Camden, London, England, UK
Birth name
Anthony Stewart Head
Nickname
- Tony
Height
6′ 1″ (1.86 m)

Biography

Family

Spouse
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

The role of Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Estuary English Accent.

Trivia

Although he played Giles with an upper-class British accent, his real accent is much more North London. He got to use it in the episode 'Band Candy' when Giles reverted to his teenage self.
A huge fan of Doctor Who (1963), and auditioned for the role of the Eighth Doctor in the TV movie, Doctor Who: The Movie (1996). He later appeared as a villain in School Reunion (2006) and Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest (2007).
His own home in Somerset, which he shares with Sarah, Daisy and Emily, was used for the filming of some episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).
James Marsters based the accent of his character Spike on Head's real-life accent.
After his musical performance in Once More, with Feeling (2001), he teamed up with artist George Sarah to create the album "Music for Elevators", which was released on February 5th 2002.

Quotes

We used to hang out at Joss's place Sunday nights and do Shakespeare readings. I got to do my Richard III recently. Then we'd have a few tequilas, sit around the piano and sing. I talked to Joss years ago about doing a Buffy musical, and then finally in the summer he sat down and wrote "Once More, With Feeling," episode seven of season six. He's taken the inaccessible area of musicals - why does everybody keep singing? - and turned it to his advantage. It's the answer to "Hush, season four's spellbinding silent episode where nobody could talk. We all sing about the things we're thinking; musicals are about expressing those emotions that you can't talk about. It works a real treat. [January 9, 2002]
I think Giles likes Buffy, but she annoys him. The mere fact that she doesn't want the job that he's offering her -- she frustrates him. She represents everything he doesn't understand. Ultimately he becomes extremely fond of her. People have said, What is it? A father/daughter relationship? And it's not quite. There's nothing like it on TV. It's difficult to pigeonhole. He becomes extremely fond of her and gets into all sorts of terrible trouble because of it. ... Xander is complete anathema to him. A great annoyance because he never seems to take anything seriously. Cordelia is ... Who knows where she's coming from? Willow he respects greatly, but it's all a confusion to him. He's never really sure of anybody or anything. The only thing he is sure about is what he's supposed to do.
'Don't fall back on the parachute (my safety net). Go outside the zone of confidence and find out what's on the other side.'

Anthony Head's answer to the question 'In a nutshell, my philosophy is this...'
I have a very open mind. I believe that there's a spirit world. I believe that there's a lot of stuff out there that we don't know about, don't want to understand, and sometimes we don't want to understand it.
We all sing about the things we're thinking; musicals are about expressing those emotions that you can't talk about. It works a real treat.