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As the lovable high school student Xander Harris, who just happens to be best friends with a superhuman vampire killer and a powerful witch in the cult American TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nicholas Brendon portrayed a flawed everyman that fans could relate to. “I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away,” Xander told his friends in a characteristic wisecrack, early in the first season of the show.
Brendon, who has died aged 54, appeared in all but one of the 144 episodes of the seven-series show, which aired from 1997 to 2003. He saw his charismatic portrayal of Xander’s ordinariness in comparison with Sarah Michelle Gellar’s titular character as one of his biggest achievements. “His power was not having power,” he said in a 2017 interview.
Brendon was so convincing as Buffy’s loyal, witty, insecure, sweet and slightly useless sidekick that some critics argued his role redefined the way “decent, regular Joe” characters were represented on American TV shows, setting a trend for the neurotic, geeky, yet charming “best friend”, such as Seth Cohen on The OC.
Buffy’s creator and executive producer, Joss Whedon, said that the character was his alter ego: “Xander was obviously based on me – the sort of guy that all the girls want to be best friends with in high school, who’s kind of a loser but is more or less articulate and someone you can trust.”
Brendon’s great strength was to portray Xander as both a “loser” and a helpful team player who could be quietly heroic, whenever the script demanded it. In season three’s The Zeppo, a rare episode in which Xander takes centre stage, he is taunted for being as useless and expendable to his friends as Zeppo Marx was to the Marx Brothers – before risking his own life to save the entire school from a bomb attack. But in a revelatory moment about his character, he modestly decides not to tell his friends what he achieved without their help. “It was the only time I read the script where I cried,” Brendon said.
Born in Los Angeles to Kathleen (nee Perrine), a talent agent, and Robert Schultz, a business consultant, along with his identical twin brother, Kelly, he attended Chatsworth high school in the San Fernando Valley.
He played baseball for his school and dreamed of becoming a professional athlete, only to break his arm a year after graduation. He decided to “roll the dice and take an acting class”, where he was given tongue-twisters that helped him to overcome a stutter he had developed at the age of seven; he would later become a spokesperson for the Stuttering Foundation of America.
Brendon appeared in a Clearasil advert and a few other commercials, but was otherwise largely unsuccessful in his ambition to become an actor. In his early 20s, he worked in a wide range of jobs, including as a plumber’s assistant, veterinary janitor and waiter.
Then, in 1997, at the age of 26, he landed the part of 15-year-old Xander. He quickly bonded with Gellar and Alyson Hannigan, who played Buffy’s best friend Willow, a teen witch who for several seasons had a crush on Xander. But he later admitted that he did not appreciate just how special the show was until it was over: “I would love to be back there, knowing what I know now … I’m in my trailer, doing an amazing show, and I’m like, ‘I wonder what movie opportunities I’m missing right now.’”
A fan favourite, between 1998 and 2000 he was nominated for three Saturn awards by the American Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for his portrayal of Xander.
After Buffy ended, he played the pastry chef Seth Richman in the TV series Kitchen Confidential (2005-06), based on the book by Anthony Bourdain, then had a recurring role as an FBI technical analyst on the procedural drama Criminal Minds (2007-14). In recent years, he appeared in the vampire thriller Redwood (2018), and Christmas Slasher, a 2024 horror about a murderous zombie reindeer.
However, his career was derailed by addiction, crime and ill health. He was first treated for alcoholism in 2004, and went on to rack up a string of arrests, including for public intoxication, vandalism and domestic violence. In 2015, he entered rehab to treat his depression, alcoholism and substance abuse. His last arrest was in 2021 for prescription fraud.
In 2023, he revealed he had undergone two spinal surgeries for cauda equina syndrome. The rare nerve compression condition, which was exacerbated by a fall on ice in 2021, had left him struggling to walk.
In 2022, he was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect more likely to occur in twins. Three years ago, he revealed he had suffered a heart attack. His family said that he died of natural causes.
He was married twice, first to the actor Tressa DiFiglia in 2001 for five years, and then to the actor Moonda Tee in 2014 for five months. Both marriages ended in divorce.
Brendon is survived by his parents and his brothers, Kelly, Christian and Kyle.
