Highlights
- Anthony Head, 72, died of pneumonia complications; daughters confirmed the news June 5.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar paid tribute on Instagram using a famous Buffy farewell quote.
- Buffy castmates David Boreanaz and James Marsters also mourned the beloved actor.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is not OK, and she wants the world to know it.
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer star took to Instagram on Friday (June 5, 2026) to pay tribute to her beloved costar Anthony Head following his death at the age of 72. Anthony’s daughters, Daisy and Emily, announced on June 5 that the actor “passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia.”
Gellar, 49, opened her tribute with a line drawn directly from the show’s canon, turning it into something far more personal.
“‘Tell Giles I figured it out and I’m ok.’ Well I don’t have it figured out and I’m not ok,” Gellar wrote in her June 5 post on Instagram.
“But I know I’m the lucky one because I knew you. Thank you to Daisy and Emily who not only shared their dad with me, but with the world,” she added.
Fans will recognize those words as among the final lines spoken by Buffy in what was intended to be the series finale in season five, before the show was picked up for two more seasons at another network. The deliberate callback made the tribute all the more poignant for the show’s dedicated fanbase.
Along with her message, Gellar shared a series of behind-the-scenes photos with Head, along with images featuring his daughters, former costar Seth Green, her husband Freddie Prinze Jr., and her daughter.
Head was best known for his role as Rupert Giles, Buffy Summers’ mentor and surrogate father figure throughout all seven seasons of the series, making his debut in the pilot episode. The on-screen dynamic between the two characters gave Gellar’s tribute an additional layer of meaning that was not lost on viewers.
Gellar was not alone in her grief. The tributes from the Buffy cast poured in throughout the day.
James Marsters, who played Spike, wrote on Instagram: “There’s a hole in the World. Anthony Head has passed on from us. He was an unflaggingly kind and steady presence on the set of Buffy, and the best actor in the cast. He was the best of us. I was lucky to have known, and learned from him. He left the world a better place for his presence. Thank you Tony for all you gave.”
David Boreanaz, who played Angel, wrote to his Instagram Story: “RIP. He was so kind and generous of a soul.”
Head’s former Ted Lasso castmate Brett Goldstein also spoke to the actor’s rare ability to play darkness with warmth underneath it.
“Anthony Head was a brilliant actor who played the worst person in the world, which was an incredible skill because he was the best person. Infinitely charming and kind and fun and a joy,” Goldstein shared on his Instagram Stories.
In their full statement, Head’s daughters Emily and Daisy wrote: “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father, Anthony Head. 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.”
The daughters continued: “We know how dearly he will be missed by friends, colleagues, and fans of the shows he was in. He loved his job very much, and he always considered himself incredibly lucky to have been able to work alongside such exceptionally talented people, in such wonderful productions, across a career that spanned several decades. Our grief is far greater than the hole he has left behind, but we know his legacy will live on, in the shows he was a part of, and in the audiences that love them.”
Head’s death marks another devastating loss for the Buffy family in a short span of time. The Buffy-verse experienced a loss earlier this year when Nicholas Brendon, who played Xander Harris, died at age 54. In 2025, Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s sister Dawn Summers, died at the age of 39.
Head’s passing also comes just months after his family suffered another blow, with the death of his longtime partner, Sarah Fisher, who died at 61 in late 2025.
Beyond Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where he starred from 1997 to 2003, Head also appeared in Merlin, Little Britain, and most recently Ted Lasso. His career spanned stage and screen across several decades, cementing a legacy that his daughters made clear they intend to honor.
