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Bath Chronicle, newspaper, Bath, England.

More Bath Chronicle articles: 2000-2001


1986-1999

  • Charity draw tops 70,000 for new research study, July 23, 1999.
  • Buffy Star to Open Fete, June 18, 1999.
  • Causing a Stir on the other side of the Atlantic, Wednesday 30 December 1998.
  • Celebrity Skittles, 10 June 1998.
  • Actor Lends a Hand, Saturday 24 August 1996.


    Charity draw tops 70,000 for new research study, 23 July 1999.

    A LOCAL television celebrity helped a charity based near Bath with a massive fund-raising raffle. Tony Head, who lives in Farmborough, drew the winner for the annual raffle held by the Radstock-based National Osteoporosis Society last Friday. The prize draw raised more than 70,000 for the charity, which supports people with osteoporosis and funds research into bone health. Mr Head is well known for his appearances in the Gold Blend coffee commercials and the cult television series Buffy the Vampire-Slayer. The winner of the first prize, a Ford Ka, was Olive Couser, of Oldbury, in the West Midlands. NOS director Linda Edwards said the event was a great success. "Thank you to everyone who helped make this year's fund-raising draw so successful," she said. "We are grateful to the local and national companies who donated prizes and to everyone who bought tickets." The charity recently announced that it was to fund a 100,000 research study into the treatment of osteoporosis in men. The study will take place at six centres across the country and one of those will be at Bath's Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases. Its aim is to establish better treatments for men suffering from a form of the brittle bone disease, whose cause it so far unknown. The Bath hospital has long been recognised as a centre for excellence in the study of this disease and others affecting bones.

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  • BEDLAM: ASH: Charities and Causes: National Osteoporosis Society

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    Buffy star to open fete, 18 June 1999, by Malcolm Tucker, Chronicle correspondent.

    TONY Head, one of the stars of the cult TV programme Buffy, The Vampire Slayer will be at Timsbury rectory tonight to open the summer fete being organised by St Mary's Church.

    The Timsbury actor, who moved to the village some years ago having made his name on the Gold Blend coffee adverts, has been a big hit as the librarian Rupert Giles on the TV series which began on Sky and then moved to BBC.

    The fete, which begins at 6.30pm, has a number of attractions.

    A Punch and Judy show will be performed by the Bath Puppet Theatre and there will be a display of vintage cars, including a wedding car loaned by Ken Biggs.

    The popular morris dancers will also perform and there will be a chance for people to bid for a champagne balloon flight for two.

    There will be a wide variety of stalls and competitions, a licensed bar and a barbecue.

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    Causing a stir on the other side of the Atlantic, Wednesday 30 December 1998.

    (Note: a different version of this article--which had a couple of extra paragraphs and bits, which I've added here in parentheses--appeared on 28 December 1998 in the Newcastle Journal: "Anthony Has a Stake in Buffy's Wellbeing," by Olivia Conley.)

    HE had an instant effect on many a female heart when he appeared in that series of coffee adverts, playing the ultimate romantic hero. But now Anthony Head is causing a stir on the other side of the Atlantic.

    The actor has achieved cult status in the quirky comic-horror television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a school librarian who just happens to be an expert on all things evil.

    Co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar plays high school student Buffy, who has been chosen to rid the world of vampires.

    Now the bizarre series is coming to (terrestrial television in) Britain, and it hasn't come a moment too soon for Anthony (--formerly plain old Tony--Head).

    "I have already got quite a reaction from people on the internet and from screenings on satellite. But I really do want it to be a success on terrestrial TV in Britain. I don't want people to forget all about me."

    Viewers could well be forgiven for forgetting about the dashing 45-year-old actor.

    After the end of the famous Gold Blend commercials, in which he co-starred with Sharon Maughan, TV work dried up and he went to live in Santa Monica, near Los Angeles, in search of success. First he appeared in the sci-fi series VR5, then it was the cult hit Buffy that came his way.

    But his success in America has been hard won. The London-born actor has had to leave his wife, animal behaviourist Sarah Fisher, and their daughters, Emily, ten, and seven-year-old Daisy at their home in Timsbury (just outside Bath) while he pursued his career on America's glamorous west coast, where he has been for the past five years.

    "Britain is their home. It wouldn't be fair to uproot them and they have no great desire to leave a beautiful Regency house and rolling green hills so they can come and sit in LA where they shoot people," he said.

    So he has had to split his time between working in Hollywood and quick trips back home whenever he has a few days' break.

    "I try and make it for about six days a month," he said. "Anything less than that would be just too disruptive. But they do come over here to see me as well, during school holidays.

    "At first I was crashing out on people's floors, then I got a series of pretty grim rented flats. Now I have a nice apartment in Santa Monica."

    (The only problem is that the girls have to share a room, which doesn't go down too well. They put up with it though, because they get to go to Universal Studios and Disneyland.)

    Anthony believes that it was his (very) success in the Gold Blend advertisements that led to his exile from Britain.

    The sultry series of 'will they, won't they?' adverts ran for nearly ten years and sparked a separate series in the States under the coffee's US brand name of Taster's Choice.

    "I could succeed at the box office--I could put bums on seats in the theatre," he said (wryly). "But TV roles just weren't happening. I was earning a decent crust off the commercial, so I was able to pick and choose a bit. But if you are not in the public eye and seen on screen then your media profile diminishes. That's when I decided to try my lot in the States."

    It was a tough ride to begin with, until Sarah decided to give her husband a piece of advice.

    "I was sitting over here twiddling my thumbs," he said. "She was back at home having to cope with work and the girls and the home.

    "Frankly, she told me to stop moaning, get off my bottom and do something positive, like taking acting classes. I bristled a bit at that--I had been to drama school after all!"

    But he did the bullet and signed up with the Svengali to the stars, Milton Katzelas, whose pupils have included Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.

    ("His teaching is about attitude to life as well as acting and he is held in huge regard there. When he walks into a class everyone applauds--that's very West Coast! But his teaching was extraordinary.")

    With his career firmly established in the States, Anthony is now keen to make his mark back home in Britain once more.

    He is working on an animated film, a rock 'n roll gothic musical called D'Ark Secrets.

    "It was originally going to be a stage musical, but now I am putting a treatment together with my co-writer Matthew Bell and we could be in pre-production on it next year," he said.

    "By then, I hope Buffy will be a success in Britain, so people don't forget about me."

    There will be no more ads for a while though. "I don't drink nearly as much instant coffee now I'm not being paid to," he laughed.

    "As for Giles on Buffy--he makes a point of drinking Earl Grey tea!"

    * Buffy the Vampire Slayer is on BBC2 at 8pm tonight

    Caption: Screen Idol: Anthony Head, from Timsbury, the former Gold Blend heart-throb, now stars in the American quirky comic horror TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

    (Caption: Expert in evil: Anthony Head who stars as Rupert Giles, the librarian, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)

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    Celebrity Skittles, 10 June 1998, by Malcolm Tucker.

    Timsbury: Actor Tony Head and a number of the stars from Casualty will turn their attention to skittles this weekend to raise money for charity, writes Malcolm Tucker, Chronicle correspondent.

    A celebrity skittles evening is being held at St Mary's School, Timsbury, on Saturday from 6.30pm to 10pm in aid of the Rainbow Centre for children with cancer and life threatening illnesses.

    Tony Head has spent much of the last year in the USA playing the part of Giles the English librarian in the successful Buffy And The Vampire Slayer, which can be seen every Saturday night on Sky 1. He will be joined on Saturday by Casualty actors Ian Bleasedale who plays Josh, Clare Goose (Tina) and Rebecca Lacey (George).

    The first two hours of the event will see members of the public playing skittles and the highest scorers will then take on the celebrity side.

    There will be plenty of other attractions a barbecue and licensed bar. Admission is by programme with family

    Related Links

  • BEDLAM: ASH: Charities and Causes: Rainbow Centre

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    Actor Lends A Hand, Saturday 24 August 1996, by Hazel Rayner.

    Actor Tony Head added his palm-print to a rainbow of children's hands at a toy shop in Bath yesterday.

    Tridias of Walcot Street is celebrating its 30th anniversary and has turned the celebrations into a fund-raiser for the Rainbow Centre in Bristol which cares for children with life-threatening illnesses.

    Staff at the shop have been inviting children to add their handprints to the multi-coloured mural for 20p a go.

    Yesterday Mr Head, who is a supporter of the charity, took his two daughters, seven-year-old Emily and Daisy, five, along to add to the display.

    Manager Sharron Von Tut Scheck said: "He's one of our regular customers and it's just really nice of him to come along and support us."

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  • BEDLAM: ASH: Charities and Causes: Rainbow Centre


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    More Bath Chronicle articles: 2000-2001


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    Page created August 1998; last updated January 13, 2001. Original material © Betsy Vera (bentley@umich.edu). This website is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.

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    Causing a stir on the other side of the Atlantic
    Tan suit, from Bath Chronicle


    Actor Lends a Hand
    With daughters

    Sources: Becky Dorrie, Worstwitch, others.