I'm a Star in The States At Last, But All I Think About Is My Little Emily; Family Agony of Gold Blend Tony. April 21, 1995, by Gerard Evans.

Gold Blend Actor Tony Head Worries About Daughter Emily

Tony Head looks tired, jet-lagged and scruffy. The hair that was once spruced into a shiney quiff for his part as the Gold Blend romeo, now hangs limply across his forehead.

The 41 year-old actor has just returned from an enormously successful stint in America where he has been starring in a top-rating sci fi drama series to be shown on the BBC this summer.

But Tony Head's thoughts are not on stardom. They are with his six year-old daughter Emily who is suffering severe depression after the tragic death of her best friend.

Emily's four year-old playmate Erin Palmer Lund died in June, two years after she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Emily has still not recovered from her early introduction to death.

"It is an exciting time for me, but when your daughter is sick it tends to put things in perspective," says Tony.

"All my attention is on her. Our children were knocked sideways by Erin's death, but as the oldest Emily suddenly understood death was a reality. Erin and her mother Cynthia were like family to us. Emily became very unstable and tearful. "I had to return from Hollywood and we took her to counselling at the Rainbow Centre in Bath, which helps families cope with the death of a child.

"Counselling has helped but we have been giving her a homeopathic pill called Pulsatilla which uses natural poisons to build up her immune system. Sarah is an aromatherpist and we both believe in alternative medicines.

"It has pulled her back somewhat but she is still a very unhappy little girl, which is very distressing for us. The whole experience has been devastating," says Tony.

The family are now living in Bath in a beautiful Regency home Tony is renovating. It is a warm, peaceful environment - a far cry from Los Angeles.

Now he and Cynthia [sic], who have been together for nine years, are publishing a celebrity recipe book to help finance a national network of Rainbow Centres. "We have been working fulltime with Erin's mother to keep the Rainbow Centre open. There is nothing like it on the NHS. The recipe book has more than 80 recipes from celebrities like Michael Caine, Joan Collins, Victoria Wood and Lulu and Robbie Coltrane."

Tony has spent four years trying to break into Hollywood and out of his image as the caffeine addicted seducer with the twinkly smile. Although the ads stopped running in the UK years ago, he is still mobbed by women in America where ads for the brew they call Taster's Choice are still hot.

But with his latest starring role as a sinister Government agent in the virtual reality drama VR5, he shakes off his coffee habit forever.

His character is an evil force who has the ability to climb into people's minds. He doesn't give a second thought to slapping women or leaping from tall buildings to escape justice.

"I've played the smoothie in coffee ads, but I've been a baddie before because I'm good at playing the smiling villain. I'm a very confused guy who tries to control this scientist by offering her crumbs of information about her secret childhood," smiles Tony.

"This is the most exciting script I've ever read and it could easily become a cult classic like Twin Peaks. VR5 has got very good reviews and I can't wait for British people to see there more to me than the coffee guy."

His Gold Blend fame played no part in Tony getting the role, as casting agents who tested him were unaware of his alter ego. "It wasn't until the third audition when girls working at the studio began giggling and asking 'Aren't you the Taster's Choice guy,' that they realised I was a known face.

They couldn't believe how much interest the ads created. "That could have worked against me in England where if you are really associated with some product it can rule you out of parts. But in the States they think it is better if you have a profile." In America Tony is known as Anthony Stewart Head, because another actor in New York registered as Tony Head before him.

"I rang him up and tried to talk him into letting me use the name but he wouldn't have it," he laughs. He and coffee lovebird Sharon Maugham are still steaming up screens with their potent brew of seduction, but their affair has added several chapters never seen in the UK. Recently Sharon unveiled her grown-up college graduate son to a bemused Tony and in the next episode he runs into more of her old baggage when a jealous ex-husband arrives at her apartment. The couple have shared steamy kisses which British viewers were denied seeing and Tony speaks in an American accent. The Tasters Choice guy also had a more casual California clothes style instead of his stuffy British shirt and tie. "The British ads ran for 12 parts before it ran out of steam but the Americans have gone much further. The arrival of Sharon's ex -husband will take things another dimension. The one where we kiss pasionately has been really popular. "As long as they want me to keep doing them I will be there. I love the ads. They have allowed me the freedom to be independent. I'd never turn my back on coffee ads just because I've got a good TV series." The ads are so popular in the US that an 800 free-phone line was set up so fans could ask questions about the couple and received hundreds of thousands of calls in just three weeks. "Every time I act with Sharon something magic happens. The secret of my success is all down to the twinkle in my eye. That translates in any country. I don't do it on purpose, it's just my playful side."

His own dating has not been as slick as Gold Blend man though. Tony confesses that he once failed to recognise girlfriend Sarah at a friend's house. "She was wearing a wig and bet our friend I wouldn't recognise her. I am as blind as a bat, so I introduced myself to her and made a complete fool of myself. We'd only been living together for six years."

Gold Blend has meant gold in the bank for Tony, but he is anxious to point out he's no millionaire. Instead, the ads have paid for him to rent a house in Santa Monica every summer while hunting for good TV and film work.

"It also paid for our dream house in Bath, but that cost no more than a Wimbledon semi. I don't drive a flash car either. My attitude is that it could all be gone tomorrow. "My contract is always pre-negotiated for three years though.

You can't get grand and demand more cash because it is successful. I do have a good life though. "I would never live here fulltime though. That would mean uprooting the family and its easier for me to fly back for weekend visits. God bless Richard Branson and Gold Blend."

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