Anthony Stewart Head

Anthony Stewart Head 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" and as Uther Pendragon in "Merlin."

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." 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!"

Success on the stage and a number of brief appearances on American television, such as in the short-lived VR.5, led to accepting the role of Rupert Giles in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in 1997. For this role he lived full-time in the United States during the late 1990s and early 2000s, although his family continued to live in the UK. Head left the regular cast of Buffy during the show's sixth season and subsequently appeared several times as a guest star through the conclusion of the series.

Outside of television work, he has released an album of songs with musician George Sarah entitled Music for Elevators. Early in his career he provided vocals for some of the tracks on the Chris de Burgh album The Getaway and the reading from The Tempest on Don't Pay the Ferryman.

In 2007, he portrayed Stockard Channing's gay brother in the English film "Sparkle" and appeared as Mr Colubrine in the ITV1 comedy drama "Sold." Head also appeared as Sir Walter Elliot in "Persuasion." Head also narrated a BBC behind-the-scenes program for the American television series "Heroes, Heroes Unmasked." He has also been seen as Maurice Riley in the BBC Drama "The Invisibles" alongside Warren Clarke.

Head was part of the regular cast of the BBC drama series "Merlin," which derives its title from the mythical wizard of the same name. Head played King Uther Pendragon, the father of Prince Arthur. Head also provides voice-over work in the Nintendo Wii video game, Flip's Twisted World, developed by Frozen North Productions.