Anthony Head, the British actor best known to millions as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and later for roles in Ted Lasso, Merlin and Little Britain, has died at 72. His daughters, Emily Head and Daisy Head, said he died peacefully after complications from pneumonia, surrounded by his family.

For viewers, his name carried a kind of durable familiarity: the stern mentor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the former football club owner Rupert Mannion in Ted Lasso, the king in Merlin and the recurring comic presence in Little Britain. He also appeared in The Iron Lady, Persuasion, The Inbetweeners and Manchild, building a television and film career that stretched across decades and both sides of the Atlantic.

Emily and Daisy Head announced the death and said it had been, and would forever remain, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters. They said they had seen firsthand the impact he and his work had on so many, adding that he would be dearly missed by friends, colleagues and fans of the shows he appeared in. They also said he loved his job very much and always considered himself incredibly lucky.

That praise sits alongside a harder fact: Head died from complications due to pneumonia, a reminder that even a long, public career can end quietly and suddenly. The family did not say when he became ill or how long he had been unwell, leaving only the final image they chose to share — a private death, with his family close at hand, and a public legacy already fixed in the work that made him known around the world.

Head’s death closes the book on one of British television’s most recognisable supporting stars. What remains is the body of work his family said will live on, and the characters that made Anthony Head a fixture for audiences from the late 1990s onward.