Anthony

Dr Anthony Fauci, a former top United States public health official, has declined to answer questions at a Republican-led Senate committee hearing into the origins of COVID-19 and the handling of the pandemic.

The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on Wednesday.

Fauci was called to testify by Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who accuses him of misleading Congress and questions whether US-funded research in China played a role in the pandemic, allegations Fauci denies.

Although former President Joe Biden granted Fauci a preemptive pardon in 2025, Republicans claim it does not protect him from any alleged crimes committed after it was issued, such as perjuring himself at a Senate hearing.

Fauci’s lawyers advised him not to testify, arguing that anything he said under oath could expose him to new legal risks.

Here is what to know:

Who is Anthony Fauci?

Fauci, 85, is a physician and immunologist who led the US NIAID for 38 years, advising seven presidents, both Republican and Democratic.

He became the public face of the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, after helping lead the country’s response to health crises including HIV/AIDS, Ebola and the 2001 anthrax attacks.

He became a target of conservative criticism over pandemic policies, including mask recommendations, vaccines and school closures.

During his last year in government, Fauci was also chief medical adviser to Biden until he retired in 2022.

During the pandemic, between 2019 and 2022, he kept more than 1,000 pages of diary entries documenting his work advising the White House and responding to the pandemic.

The notes chronicle his interactions with senior officials and the media.

Why is Fauci being questioned?

He was subpoenaed to testify over his handling of the pandemic and its origins before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The hearing, led by Paul, focused on several issues:

• COVID-19’s origins: Paul has long argued that the coronavirus that causes COVID may have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and questioned whether US-funded research played a role in the outbreak.
• Gain-of-function research: Republicans say Fauci misled Congress about whether the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, involving modifying viruses to understand how they evolve and assess pandemic risks. Fauci says the NIH did not fund research that caused COVID-19.

• Allegations of a cover-up: Paul accused Fauci of making false statements to Congress and concealing the NIH’s involvement in research in Wuhan. Fauci denies that.
• Fauci’s diary: Before the hearing, Paul released more than 1,100 pages of Fauci’s typewritten diary. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said the notes were government record because they were written by a federal employee on a government computer during a public health emergency and they were found on government property.
• Paul said the diary showed differences between Fauci’s private discussions and his public statements. Fauci’s supporters say the entries reflect the uncertainty scientists faced as they learned more about a new virus.

What happened at the hearing?

The tense hearing lasted about three hours.

After a brief opening statement, Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to answer more than 100 questions.

He accused committee chairman Paul of having an “obsession” with prosecuting him.

The hearing included several tense moments:

• Contempt vote: Paul said the committee would vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer questions, threatening “consequences for refusing to answer”.
• Lawyer removed: Paul directed Capitol Police to remove Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, after he tried to speak without being recognised by the committee. “This testimony is from Anthony Fauci. This is not a game with his lawyers,” Paul said. Schertler later described the hearing as an “obsessive vendetta”.
• Democrats defend Fauci: Democratic senators said the hearing was politically motivated. Senator Gary Peters called it “a partisan exercise” designed to support “a predetermined conclusion” rather than offering legitimate oversight.

Closing the hearing, Paul asked rhetorically: “Did [Fauci’s] actions lead to the largest man-made plague in history?”

Why did Fauci invoke the Fifth Amendment?

Fauci said he invoked the Fifth Amendment on the advice of his lawyers because he believed his answers could expose him to new legal risks.

He argued that Paul was trying to build a criminal case against him rather than conduct legitimate congressional oversight.

Although Biden’s pardon protects Fauci from prosecution for actions before January 2025, Republicans say any false statements made under oath during this hearing could still expose him to perjury charges.

The Fifth Amendment protects people from being forced to give evidence that could incriminate them in a criminal case. Invoking it is a constitutional right and does not imply guilt.

What do scientists believe about COVID-19’s origins?

Most scientists believe COVID-19 likely spread naturally from animals to humans, known as zoonotic spillover, pointing to a wildlife market in Wuhan as the most likely place where it first spread.

Fauci has consistently said he believes that scientific evidence points to a natural origin, while remaining open to other possibilities.

Notes from his diary detail a January 2020 call with 11 top virologists and evolutionary biologists – only two were convinced the virus had a natural origin, while the rest debated whether it could have been engineered.

Today, most scientists favour a natural origin, while the US intelligence community is divided.

The FBI said in 2023 that a laboratory-related incident is the most likely origin of the pandemic. The CIA reached the same conclusion in 2025, but with low confidence. Other agencies and the National Intelligence Council continue to favour a natural origin or remain undecided.

Does Biden’s pardon protect Fauci?

Yes, but only what happened before the pardon was issued.

On January 19, 2025, Biden granted Fauci a full and unconditional pardon covering any federal offences he may have committed since 2014, saying the move aimed to protect Fauci from “politically motivated prosecutions”.

The pardon does not cover actions taken after it was issued. Fauci could face legal consequences if he were accused of committing a new crime, such as making false statements under oath during Wednesday’s Senate hearing.

Paul and other Republicans also argue that because Biden’s pardon shields Fauci from criminal liability for his past actions, he can no longer claim that his testimony about those actions would incriminate him and should not be able to invoke his Fifth Amendment.

The legal standing of this argument is not clear, and Paul has acknowledged that it is a novel “legal question that the courts may have to decide”.

Can Fauci be held in contempt or prosecuted?

Potentially, but it remains unclear whether either will happen.

Paul said the Senate committee will vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after he refused to answer more than 100 questions.

Being held in contempt means lawmakers believe a witness has refused to cooperate with a lawful investigation. It does not automatically lead to criminal charges, but can trigger further legal action.

If the committee approves the measure, it could refer the case to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, ask a federal court to pursue a civil action, or, in the rarest case, ask the Senate to use its powers to detain a witness through the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

Paul has not said which option, if any, he plans to pursue.

Another dramatic and emotional night in Anthony Joshua’s boxing career ultimately ended as just about everyone expected it would – with the countdown under way to a super-fight against Tyson Fury later in the year.

Joshua, 36, improved his record to 30-4, but he was almost on the end of one of the biggest shocks in his sport’s history when he was knocked down twice by little-known Albanian Kristian Prenga inside the first round.

The Briton regrouped in the second round to land a flurry of hard right hands, sending Prenga crashing to the canvas and getting the win he came to Jeddah for.

BBC Sport has selected some of the best pictures from the fight, which came seven months on from the car crash in Nigeria in which Joshua was injured and two of his closest friends died.

Anthony Joshua suffered two knockdowns – the first happening after just 20 seconds – before recovering to dramatically stop Kristian Prenga in the second round of his comeback fight in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The British heavyweight was fighting for the first time since surviving the December car crash in Nigeria that claimed the lives of his close friends Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele.

He was sensationally rocked by a huge uppercut from underdog Prenga in the opening round, and then hit the canvas again later in the round.

At that point he looked on the verge of one of the biggest shock defeats in heavyweight history, with the long-awaited Tyson Fury fight hanging by a thread.

But Joshua produced one of the greatest escapes of his career, and now that fight is on.

He unleashed his right hand in the second round, with the final shot sending Albanian Prenga crashing down and forcing the referee to halt the contest.

“It’s more than punch power. That was spirit, that was Latz, that was Sina, that was the families. It hurts to even talk about it. It has been tough,” Joshua, 36, said.

He choked up and stepped away from the microphone, before adding: “It’s my brothers. I don’t want to talk about it.”

There had been speculation fellow Briton Fury might make a appearance despite insisting he would not attend.

But the master of mind games stayed true to his word, with Fury nowhere to be seen barely 24 hours on from his own warm-up win over Mariusz Wach in Thailand.

“I respect everything he has done and everything that he has achieved, but as a fighting person, we’re here now. I hope the fans will be in for a lovely treat,” Joshua said about the prospect of fighting Fury.

Contracts have been signed, but the venue and date for a fight more than a decade in the making are still unknown.

This chaotic night, however, belonged to Joshua in a victory forged through adversity during the most difficult months of his life.

Anthony Joshua says he is not ready for the loss of his two close friends and team members to “sink in yet” as he prepares for his first fight since their death.

Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele died when the vehicle they were travelling in, alongside heavyweight boxer Joshua and another passenger, collided with a stationary truck on a major road near Lagos, Nigeria, on 29 December 2025.

Joshua, who sustained minor injuries, is set to return to the ring against heavyweight Kristian Prenga on Saturday for his first contest since knocking out American YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul 10 days before the crash.

The 36-year-old told BBC Sport: “It’s tough, every time I think about it, it hurts.

“Even talking about it now… pictures… it hurts but I keep my mind occupied you know.

“If I stop, you let it sink in and I’m not ready for it to sink in yet.”

Ghami was Joshua’s full-time sport and exercise rehabilitation coach and worked with him for more than 10 years.

Hours before the crash, Joshua posted a video on Instagram of him playing table tennis with his long-time friend Ayodele, a personal trainer.

Prenga will be Joshua’s first competitive fight since his knockout loss to IBF world champion Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in September 2024.

The former world champion admitted to feeling a “little bit nervous” before his return.

“It’s competition at the highest level,” he added.

“I want to perform for my team, I want to make them proud and make myself proud.

“It’s a balance of nerves but I understand what my job is. [I have] a lot of understanding and clarity on what I have to do.”

JENNIFER Lopez’ ex-husband Marc Anthony has become a dad for the EIGHTH time aged 57 after his fourth wife Nadia Ferreira, 27, welcomed their second child together.  

Singer Marc and model Nadia – who also share three-year-old son Marco – took to social media to reveal their happy news, telling fans they’d welcomed a baby girl named Myla. 

Their caption, translated from Spanish, read: “What a great blessing to be able to share with you the arrival of our precious MYLA.

“You can’t imagine the happiness we have at home, we are over the moon.”

Marc and superstar JLo, 56, who split in 2011 after 10 years of marriage, are parents to 18-year-old twins Emme and Max. 

He is also dad to Chase, 35, and Arianna, 31 – who he shares with ex-girlfriend Debbie Rosado – and Cristian, 25, and Ryan, 22, from his first marriage to Dayanara Torres. 

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Marc and Nadia tied the knot in 2023 in a star-studded ceremony at Perez Art Museum in Miami.

In 2014 – three years after he and Jennifer called time on their marriage – Marc married model Shannon Di Lima.

But he filed for divorce less than two years later.

The news came just weeks after Marc kissed JLo on stage at the Latin Grammy Awards.

They reunited for a performance and ended with a kiss after she presented him with a career achievement award.

JLo told the crowd at the time how Marc would “always be many things in my life — a mentor, a soulmate, a father”.

Taylor refereed the 2015 EFL Cup final, with Chelsea beating Tottenham Hotspur 2–0.

In 2020, he became the first referee since 1901 to take charge of two FA Cup finals when Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1.

Taylor previously took charge of the 2017 FA Cup final, also a 2-1 win for Arsenal against Chelsea.

He also refereed the Community Shield in 2015 and the 2018 Championship play-off final.

Taylor received praise for the way he handed the Euro 2020 game between Denmark and Finland, which had to be halted when Christian Eriksen collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest.

He has also been appointed to several high-profile Uefa matches, including the 2020 Super Cup final, with Bayern Munich beating Sevilla 2-1, the 2021 Nations League final, in which France beat Spain 2-1, and the 2023 Europa League final which saw Sevilla beat Roma on penalties.

Taylor faced a great deal of abuse after the Europa League final, but was firmly backed by Uefa referees’ chief Roberto Rosetti.

Roma boss Jose Mourinho called Taylor a “disgrace” twice in a post-match news conference before confronting him in a car park – an incident the Portuguese was given a four-match ban for.

Taylor was then shouted at by angry fans as he walked though Budapest Airport with his family.

In October 2025, Taylor spoke to BBC Sport about the impact of that night and the events that followed.

“That’s the worst situation I’ve dealt with in terms of abuse,” Taylor said.

“Not only because I was travelling with family members at the time, but it also highlights the impact of people’s behaviour on others. Even in a match like that, where there was actually no major mistakes in the game.”

Taylor, who also took charge of games at the Fifa Club World Cup in 2022 and 2025, hinted in last October’s interview that his career could be coming to an end.

“I’m 47 next week, so that’s quite old for somebody to be operating at this level, running around after people a lot younger than you,” Taylor said.

“It’s much more of a challenge now to maintain the levels of fitness and to rest and recover.”

His retirement creates a gap at the top of refereeing in the English game.

Refereeing body Pro Ref, formerly known as PGMO, has merged its officials into one group for the 2026-27 season.

The creation of the professional referee group, which will service the Premier League and Championship, is intended to give greater opportunities to up-and-coming officials, such as Farai Hallam and Tom Kirk.

Brentford are nearing a move for Burnley forward Jaidon Anthony for a £15m fee rising to £17m with add-ons.

The 26-year-old is ready to sign a four-year contract with an option for an extra year and his medical is provisionally scheduled for Monday.

Anthony contributed nine goals and four assists across 38 appearances in all competitions last season, although that was not enough to prevent the Clarets from being relegated.

The Brentford move appeals to Anthony, who is from London and began his career in Arsenal‘s academy, while Bees manager Keith Andrews considers him a good fit for his style of play.

Brentford have already signed defender Jannik Schuster from RB Salzburg in a deal worth up to £16m including add-ons.

Anthony left Arsenal in 2016 without making an appearance for the senior team but then established himself at Bournemouth after loan spells at Weymouth and Leeds United.

He joined Burnley on loan from Bournemouth in 2024, with the move made permanent last summer following promotion to the Premier League, triggering an £8m obligation-to-buy clause.

Burnley were relegated after one season in the top flight and face West Ham in their first game back in the Championship on 16 August.

Brentford narrowly missed out on European qualification, finishing ninth on goal difference, and play Tottenham in their opening Premier League fixture.

Eddie Huang has never felt lighter. Last month, after his debut novel, “Come Undone,” finally released, something shifted.

“I have a family. I feel healed,” he said over coffee and short ribs in Santa Monica hours ahead of a live talk with Ottessa Moshfegh, the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of Huang’s favorite book, “My Year of Rest and Relaxation.”

“People always write me off as a personality or a multi-hyphenate,” he said. “It’s a nice way of saying I’m not really good at anything. But I didn’t have any of that this time.” He leaned forward, serious. “I have to be honest. I do think the Knicks are a big, big part of it.”

His beloved Knicks winning the championship, he said, kept him from spiraling over the book. In person, Huang subdues his ironic braggadocio with polite eye contact and rolling belly laughs at his own jokes. For years, audiences have watched Huang resist whatever box you put him in. His particular brand of cultural fluency — a rapid-fire mix of food, fashion, basketball, politics and pop culture — is what made the “Gua Bao Bad Boy” impossible to categorize.

For most of his career, Huang has seemed constitutionally incapable of standing still. Chef. Memoirist. TV host. Filmmaker. Lawyer. Comic. Podcaster. His first book, “Fresh Off the Boat,” became the longest-running network sitcom centered on an Asian American family, even as Huang publicly distanced himself from the show. Since leaving post-fires L.A. for New York, he’s reopened Baohaus — returning to the kitchen that built his career. Waiting for him at home after the book tour is his wife, Natashia Perrotti, and their 2-year-old son.

Now there’s “Come Undone,” fiction that Huang called his most honest — and vulnerable — work to date.

“It’s sort of this next-gen auto fiction type thing that is creating its own rules,” Moshfegh said ahead of their Q-and-A. “It made me think about my own appreciation for the experience of male heterosexuality and how much it’s been commodified.”

The book follows Hubie, a globe-trotting food-show host drifting through Chateau Marmont, Madeo, Nobu and other “dirtbag L.A” (as Huang coins) spots. He meets Janine, his equal in appetite and id, sending him into a tailspin of yearning and loops of Sky Ferreira’s “Everything Is Embarrassing” on sadboi walks. The “two walking red flags” decide to try to make it work.

Huang called the novel an “autofictional riddle.” The puzzle isn’t especially difficult if you’ve followed his relationship with Perrotti, who co-hosts their podcast, “Canal Street Dreams.” Marrying a writer, she’s learned, often means finding out what he feels by reading it. “We’ll get into a fight,” she said, “and I’ll wake up to a Substack article about it.”

It’s also part of the private life she’s since conceded. “It’s annoying,” she added. “But now I can read it, and maybe understand him a little bit better. He’s trying to communicate through the writing, like sending somebody a song and saying, ‘I want you to listen to these lyrics.’”

The novel goes further, drawing from experiences the couple has never discussed publicly. In the novel, Hubie and Janine’s relationship pivots after an ectopic pregnancy ends in loss. Perrotti said the scene is fictionalized but mirrors a similar experience they had early in their own relationship.

“It brought us closer together,” she said. “It was the catalyst for us realizing we were serious.”

Before Huang could finish the book, the life he was writing about had to fall apart. “This book was very much about breaking up with your family to start your own,” he said. “There was a lot of anger in the book that had not been resolved.”

By the end of 2024, Huang had stopped speaking to his mother. The break followed what he described as a blowup at a Cheesecake Factory. It also unlocked the ending he’d been chasing.

Eddie Huang.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Looking back, Huang thinks the earlier versions failed because he was still arguing with her. He’s still trying, in some way, to communicate with her through his writing. “If there’s one person I wish would read the book,” he said, “it would be my mom.”

There were other chapters he had to close the book on, mainly Hollywood. His foray into fiction coincided with the writers’ strike, drying up all his income and future projects. That same year, he became a father. “I had to accept and realize that my value was not in making money,” he said. “Because for three years, I couldn’t.”

He recalled a particular low point researching life insurance policies. “I had to rebuild my whole self. Really love myself despite not being able to offer anybody anything.”

That new certainty didn’t make Huang any less willing to pick fights. Last year, as his documentary “Vice Is Broke” — an autopsy of the media company behind “Huang’s World” and its eventual bankruptcy — awaited release, Huang said distributor Mubi shelved the film after he boycotted the company over Sequoia Capital’s investment in an Israeli defense technology startup. (Mubi denied this and said it still planned to distribute the film.)

The ghost of Vice still lingers in today’s media ecosystem in what he called our “era of cartel journalism:” creators navigating a world of blurred incentives and corporate interests. He traced this instinct to challenge those systems back to Socrates’ “gadfly” — the person whose job was to annoy power. “As a writer, you should be challenging people,” he said. “If your memoir can be turned into a sitcom, it probably wasn’t challenging.”

Eddie Huang.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

After the 2025 L.A. fires drove his new family back to New York, Huang went back to cooking. He worked pop-ups, reopened Baohaus and found himself alongside line cooks half his age. In March 2025, he rewrote the novel in five days. That same month “was the first month I didn’t overdraft my credit card,” he said, with the majority of his income today coming from the restaurant. It’s allowed him to make films, write books and walk away from deals he doesn’t believe in. “Being a chef is the anchor that allows me to maintain my artistic integrity.”

For years, comparisons to Anthony Bourdain followed Huang everywhere. The two eventually became friends.

“He was one of the few people who was as advertised,” Huang said. “Nicer and more generous in person. And wounded.”

Bourdain is the only real person who appears in “Come Undone” under his own name.

When Huang mentions him, he stops talking. He covers his face. Tears come.

“I don’t believe in God,” he said, “but I asked the universe why for many, many years.”

Bourdain’s suicide, he said, was one of the reasons he walked away from “Huang’s World” in 2018. At the time, few people understood why. “It was Tony. It was family. It was everything.”

Eddie Huang.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Now, looking back, Huang thinks he was writing “Come Undone” toward a different ending than the one he’d imagined.

“This book is a guy saying, ‘I don’t want to be like my biological father,’” he said. “And, in the most respectful, loving way, I don’t want to go out like Tony.”

He paused. “I needed to name the sadness in me. I needed to allow myself to be loved.”

Huang is already writing another memoir about getting back into the kitchen. Still, he said, these days, he’d rather write fiction.

Rudi, an L.A. native, is a freelance art and culture writer. She’s at work on her debut novel about a stuttering student journalist.

Audiences have been streaming their “favourite role” of Anthony Head’s, following the sad news of his death.

BBC viewers have spent this weekend rewatching a ‘spellbinding’ and ‘phenomenal’ drama.

Following the devastating news of Anthony Head’s death, fans have been paying tribute and watching one of his best roles.

The news of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer star’s death was announced days ago, with his daughters sharing the news that he had died aged 72.

“He passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family,” his daughters Emily and Daisy said.

Their statement went on: “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.”

Fans have now taken to social media to share they’ve been watching some of his works, including Persuasion, Ted Lasso and Vanity Fair.

“It’s a lovely tribute to remember artists for their work,” one fan wrote on Reddit.

Another replied: “My favourite was him in Merlin,” to which another said: “He was incredible as Uther! So intimidating!” “Right he was so good as Uther,” a fan agreed.

The beloved actor starred as Uther Pendragon, King of Camelot in the BBC fantasy series, alongside Colin Morgan as Merlin, Bradley James as Prince Arthur and Richard Wilson as Gaius.

Merlin aired for five seasons between 2008 and 2012, and followed a reimagining of the legend, in which the young warlock was sent to live with Gaius in Camelot after his mother feared for his life because of his gift of magic.

Working in court, he becomes Arthur’s manservant and spends his talent trying to protect him from evil forces.

Over years, the pair become trusted friends, despite Merlin keeping his magic a secret from all those around him, as he works to help Arthur become the King he was destined to be.

Fans have hailed Merlin as “spellbinding” and “one of the best,” with one writing: “The ending is heartbreaking and may leave you in an eternal sadness but it’s worth it.”

Another said: “I love Merlin, from the 1st episode I knew this would be an excellent show.”

“One of the best TV series of BBC,” another echoed, as one called it “perfection”.

Someone else called it “phenomenal”, as another fan called it “an epic masterpiece”.

Anthony Head previously spoke about how much he enjoyed playing his role in Merlin.

“He has so many levels, and that makes him fascinating,” he said in a 2010 interview.

“We established early on that he wasn’t just a two-dimensional baddie, and now his past transgressions have manifested themselves, which is great fun to play.”

He joked: “I also get to wear the cloak and sword, which reminds me of dressing up as a knight when I was a child.”

Merlin is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Anthony Head, the British television actor who had roles in “Ted Lasso,” “Merlin” and most notably as father figure Rupert Giles in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” has died, his family announced Friday.

Head’s daughters Emily and Daisy Head confirmed his death to the Associated Press and said he died of complications from pneumonia. He was 72.

“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 daughters said in a statement to AP. “How lucky we are to know we are able to watch him doing what he loved, even when he is no longer with us.”

Head, a veteran of several BBC series including “Doctor Who,” became most familiar to American audiences in the late 1990s, playing Rupert Giles — a high-school-librarian-turned-magic-shop-owner and mentor to Sarah Michelle Gellar‘s titular character in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He starred in a majority of episodes — 121 installments, according to IMDb — during the series’ run from 1997 to 2003. Head’s death follows those of fellow “Buffy” cast members Michelle Trachtenberg in February 2025 and Nicholas Brendon in March.

In addition to being Buffy’s advisor, Giles would go on to become a surrogate father figure to the slayer and her crew. In “Buffy” terms, Giles was a Watcher, a member of a council devoted to tracking and studying supernatural entities to keep evil forces at bay. Despite his stuffy demeanor and penchant for tweed, Giles was compassionate and had a rebellious streak, particularly in his youth. He would defy the rules set out for him by his job in order to save Buffy when he could.

Head’s portrayal of Giles left enough of an impression on audiences and series creator Joss Whedon that there was talk in 2001 of a Giles-centric spinoff. The series was planned to air on the BBC and was set to center on Giles and his sleuthing endeavors away from the main “Buffy” band. In the following years the potential miniseries evolved in to a one-off film, but Head finally confirmed in 2008 that the spinoff would not be moving forward. Whedon was “busy with another project, I’m tied up too, so at the moment I’d just say that it’s still out there,” Head told the BBC at the time.

After “Buff the Vampire Slayer” aired its final episode in 2003, Head continued his television work in British series including sketch series “Little Britain,” “The Invisibles” and “Free Agents.” His next prominent role would be in the fantasy series “Merlin” as Uther Pendragon, the King of Camelot and the father of would-be-king Arthur and sorceress Morgana Pendragon. The fantasy series premiered in 2008 and concluded in 2012.

In the following years he appeared in series “You, Me & Them,” “Dominion” and “Guilt,” among others. Head in recent years appeared in hit series “Bridgerton” and “Ted Lasso.” In the latter, co-created by Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly, Head portrayed another Rupert — this time Rupert Mannion, a womanizing billionaire and ex-husband of soccer team owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham).

Head, born Feb. 20, 1954, in London, was the son to documentary filmmaker Seafield Head and actor Helen Shingler. His older brother, Murray, is also an actor and singer.

Before Head became known for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the actor gained a reputation among British audiences in the 1980s when he starred in a series of romantic ads for Nescafe Gold Blend instant coffee. The ads were later reshot for a U.S. audience for Taster’s Choice.

Head began his acting career in musical theater and has guest starred in series including “NYPD Blue” and “Highlander.” He appeared in a number of films, including in the Oscar-winning “The Iron Lady,” starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher.

Head is preceded in death by his partner, animal welfare activist Sarah Fisher. She died in 2025 at age 61.

Times staff writer Tracy Brown and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

With his smooth good looks and jetset lifestyle, half the country fell in love with coffee-loving Tony, as he set about seducing his sexy neighbour

Long before Anthony Head became an international star courtesy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he was already a big hit in the UK – thanks to the long-running Gold Blend adverts.

During the 80s, when TV could be a bit patchy to say the least, sometimes the ads were actually better than the programmes.

And Nescafe discovered they were onto a winner in 1987 when they cast dashing 29-year-old Anthony alongside the impossibly glamorous Sharon Maughan, who was married to Trevor Eve and three years his senior.

Their simmering will-they-won’t-they saga – always over a cup of coffee even though they behaved like a couple who’d been drinking something far stronger – had tens of millions of viewers gripped.

And the pair of them managed to keep it up for an impressive six years by which time the nation was looking forward to the next instalment in the same way we would eagerly await Dallas, Dynasty or Moonlighting. We were hooked.

It explains why, when the final ads ran in 1993, they were watched by a staggering 30 million people. Nescafe did pretty well out of it too, with sales of “sophisticated” Gold Blend, the instant coffee for posh people (if there is such a thing) rising by 50%.

Each 45-second advert, developed by McCann Erickson, would last about six months before the next one came along. It wasn’t until the 12th that the pair – called Tony and Sharon just like the actors – actually professed their love for one another.

The storyline kicked off with them as neighbours and her going round to borrow some coffee because she was having a dinner party and had run out. Viewers did not miss Tony’s raised eyebrow of appreciation as he invited her in. Soon she was popping back to tell him that he’d “saved her life” with his Gold Blend, and then came the many false starts which kept stringing us along for years.

At one point he found another man in her flat – and didn’t realise it was her brother. He hoped she’d go and meet him in New York, even telling her which hotel he was in, but she didn’t go, but then he found her Concorde tickets and wondered why she’d stood him up. She turned up one night and kissed him in the doorway but was gutted to find an old flame was already there, stealing her thunder.

Then there was the discovery that he didn’t like opera, while she didn’t like jazz. And she “loathed” modern art – which was his actual job. But they did still both like the coffee. Which eventually led to her ringing him in the middle of the night to declare: “I want to see you. Now.” Surely this was it?

Not quite. The next time he had to literally extract her from a restaurant where she was dining with a suave Italian, before telling her he loved her. Phew! We got there in the end.

It’s fair to say it was the particular chemistry between Sharon and Tony that made the couple so enticing – because twice afterwards the coffee bigwigs tried to replicate their success, and twice they failed. Louise Hunt and Mark Aiken ran for a bit before petering out in 1997 and the next pair, Simon Bendix and Neil Roberts lasted for just one solitary ad.

The magic had gone. It showed that the ad was of its moment and would probably never work again. But back then it was just what we wanted – a handsome, alpha male and a confident woman with swishy hair and earrings big enough to make Pat Butcher wince. Mad Men, eat your heart out.

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