Rupert Giles

Did You Know?

• Head was nominated for the 2001 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor but lost to co-star James Marsters.
• Giles claimed to be a founding member of Pink Floyd to impress girls, though Pink Floyd was founded in 1965 when Giles would have been around ten years old.
• The proposed spin-off Ripper was to depict Giles in ghost stories set in present-day England.

Biography

Rupert Edmund Giles, often called Giles, was born around 1955 in England. He comes from a long line of Watchers, with both his father and grandmother, Edna Giles, having served the Council. As a boy, he wanted to be a fighter pilot or a grocer, but at age ten his father told him his true path. Despite later jokes about tweed nappies, Giles was a rebellious teenager. He quit Oxford University at twenty-one, where he had studied history, and once falsely claimed to be a founding member of Pink Floyd to impress girls. He may have also committed crimes, as he compares hot-wiring a car to riding a bike. He is a skilled singer and guitarist, surprising his friends when they heard him perform "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Free Bird." During his youth, he explored dark magic with a group that included Ethan Rayne, Philip Henry, Dierdre Page, Thomas Sutcliff, and Randall. Giles earned the nickname "Ripper." Together they summoned the demon Eyghon, which possessed and killed Randall. After that failure, Giles accepted his Watcher destiny. Before becoming a full Watcher, he worked as a museum curator, possibly at the British Museum. The Watchers' Council then sent him to Sunnydale, California, where he became the high school librarian. There he met the Slayer, Buffy Summers, and began training her. The library, located directly above the Hellmouth, served as the gang's base.