Anthony Head

"Uther is broken man. Everything that he basically believed in and held as reality has shifted. I’d say he’s not playing with a full set of marbles."

- Describing his character, Uther, in series 4

Anthony Stewart Head is an English actor and musician. He portrays the character of King Uther Pendragon on Merlin. He first came to international fame in the late 1980s when he starred in an ongoing series of romantic-themed commercials for Taster's Choice coffee, which were aired in both the UK and North America. In the 1990s he co-starred in the popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, playing the character Rupert Giles. His recent appearances outside Merlin have included Repo! The Genetic Opera, and several Doctor Who projects including playing the evil headmaster in School Reunion and providing voice-over work for the Infinite Quest animated serial and for audio dramas. He alternates between using and not using his middle name in his credits.

Early life
Head was born in Camden Town, London. His father was Seafield L S M Head (1919–2009), a documentary filmmaker and the founder of Verity Films, and his mother was the actress Helen Shingler. His older brother is actor and singer Murray Head. Both brothers have played the part of Freddy Trumper in the musical Chess at the Prince Edward Theatre, London, with Murray a part of the original cast in 1986, whilst Anthony was in the final cast in 1989.

Career
Head was educated at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). 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 (ITV, 1978–1980). 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 NescaféGold Blend. (A version made for the US 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. In many interviews at the time, Head said he left the show in order to spend more time with his family, having realised that he had spent most of the year outside England, which added up to more than half his youngest daughter's life. He then appeared in Merlin in 2008 as Uther Pendragon; the reason as to why he left is unknown. Anthony now lives in Bath, England with Sarah Fisher. They have two children, Emily Rose, born in December 1988, and Daisy, born in 1991.