His two Ruperts, one loving and one cruel, one I loved and one I hated so much it hurt, were so important to me. I find it incredibly difficult to explain why without sounding like I can’t distinguish fact from fiction. I’ve never met Anthony Head but Giles’s moral code shaped mine for the better. His quietly doing what the others couldn’t (leaving Buffy to stand on her own, killing Ben so Glory couldn’t return) showed me that sometimes staying ends up hurting others more than it helps. Sometimes staying hurts us so much we lose sight of who we are. Unfortunately, our choices in life aren’t clearly marked as wrong or right by black or white hats. We will cause harm. We can make heartfelt apologies to those we harm. We can learn from the most unlikely of sources. We can be right without gloating. We can be wrong and still feel like we made the only choice possible. Buffy may have saved the world, a lot, but she wouldn’t have become warm chocolate chip cookies without her Watcher. I wouldn’t be who I am without him, either.
Iconic. Enjoyed him as the villain on Ted Lasso too.
But he perfectly captured the tension and dilemma of parents who have to transition from a leadership role to a mentor role as kids age and become adults who have to make their own choices, even choices you know are going to suck for them.
Thank you very much for this retrospective on what Anthony Head brought to the show and his fellow cast mates… as well as on the show’s lack of adult female role models from Joss (who we now know is a bit of a mess himself). At 71 years old, I’m about the same age as Anthony Head was when he died. I mention this because I watched “Buffy” when it first aired and his Giles was a role model to me (my real father was not a good man … so not a role model at all). I am as grateful for the inspiration he gave his contemporaries back then as the father figure he was to young people. And I’ve since read he was a wonderfully compassionate person in real life too.
I loved him in the Taster's Choice coffee commercials. I didn't watch Buffy, but I DO remember him as the good-looking Prime Minister Michael Stevens in a series of 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 skits in the early-to-mid 2000s.
His two Ruperts, one loving and one cruel, one I loved and one I hated so much it hurt, were so important to me. I find it incredibly difficult to explain why without sounding like I can’t distinguish fact from fiction. I’ve never met Anthony Head but Giles’s moral code shaped mine for the better. His quietly doing what the others couldn’t (leaving Buffy to stand on her own, killing Ben so Glory couldn’t return) showed me that sometimes staying ends up hurting others more than it helps. Sometimes staying hurts us so much we lose sight of who we are. Unfortunately, our choices in life aren’t clearly marked as wrong or right by black or white hats. We will cause harm. We can make heartfelt apologies to those we harm. We can learn from the most unlikely of sources. We can be right without gloating. We can be wrong and still feel like we made the only choice possible. Buffy may have saved the world, a lot, but she wouldn’t have become warm chocolate chip cookies without her Watcher. I wouldn’t be who I am without him, either.
Interesting. "I’ll never understand what people expect will happen when they summon the Devil or even random demons." True that LOL.
He was a really cool guy. RIP.
Iconic. Enjoyed him as the villain on Ted Lasso too.
But he perfectly captured the tension and dilemma of parents who have to transition from a leadership role to a mentor role as kids age and become adults who have to make their own choices, even choices you know are going to suck for them.
Thank you very much for this retrospective on what Anthony Head brought to the show and his fellow cast mates… as well as on the show’s lack of adult female role models from Joss (who we now know is a bit of a mess himself). At 71 years old, I’m about the same age as Anthony Head was when he died. I mention this because I watched “Buffy” when it first aired and his Giles was a role model to me (my real father was not a good man … so not a role model at all). I am as grateful for the inspiration he gave his contemporaries back then as the father figure he was to young people. And I’ve since read he was a wonderfully compassionate person in real life too.
Rest In Peace, Anthony Head. 🙏🏻😔💔🕊️
Lovely. Thx, SER.
I loved him in the Taster's Choice coffee commercials. I didn't watch Buffy, but I DO remember him as the good-looking Prime Minister Michael Stevens in a series of 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 skits in the early-to-mid 2000s.
Same here. Never saw Buffy.