LONDON, June 6 — Actor Anthony Head, best known for his roles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso, has died at the age of 72, his family announced yesterday.

The British actor, the brother of singer Murray Head, was best known as librarian Rupert Giles in the cult US supernatural TV series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, which ran from 1997 to 2003.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father, Anthony Head,” his daughters Emily and Daisy Head, said in a statement released to the PA news agency.

“He passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family. It has been, and forever will be, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed firsthand the impact both he and his work have had on so many,” they added.

Head rose to fame in the UK in the 1980s in a series of television adverts for coffee.

In the adverts which ran from 1987 to 1993, he and actress Sharon Maughan played a couple who fell in love over a cup of coffee.

Most recently, he played former Richmond FC owner Rupert Mannion, the ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham’s character Rebecca, in football comedy Ted Lasso.

Head was also a singer known for his distinctive baritone voice.

His long-term partner Sarah Fisher who ran a sanctuary for rescued horses died in December aged 61. — AFP