Camden Toy, the character actor known for playing several of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s most monstrous demonic entities, died on Monday, his reps said. He was 68. Toy’s death came after a private two-year battle with pancreatic cancer, according to a press release.
Toy was a beloved member of the so-called Whedonverse, portraying three different Buffy demons—Gnarl, Turok-Han, and one of the malevolent Gentleman—and a Nosferatu-like fiend hailed as the Prince of Lies on spin-off series Angel.
Doug Jones, the actor known for his creatures in Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, and The Shape of Water, acted alongside Toy as a fellow Gentleman in Buffy’s fourth season, mourned his friend in a statement. “We may have met on the set of Buffy as two hideous-looking ‘Gentlemen,’ but that only sparked a dear friendship that would continue for twenty-four years,” Jones said. “It’s rare to find a man so joyful, smiley, smart, giggly, huggie [sic], good at listening with his heart, and accessible always to anyone he knew, including his many fans.”
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A native of small-town Pennsylvania, Toy would go on to recall in interviews how his father, a Paramount makeup artist, first showed him how to make himself look ghoulish and gnarled. “My dad would come home and ask, ‘How [was] your day?’” Toy told the Carteret County News-Times in 2012. “I would turn from the TV and say, ‘It was good,’ while wearing all this scary monster make-up.”
Outside of his prosthetic-heavy roles, Toy appeared in shows like The Mentalist, Shameless, and Into the Dark. He was also a series regular on Goodnight Burbank and The Bay.
He is survived by his mother, sister, and longtime partner, Bethany Henderson.
In a tribute to her partner penned a few days before his death, Henderson wrote on Facebook last week that Toy’s diagnosis last February had come after “many months of mysterious pain.”
“For many reasons we were very hopeful for, at least, a longer and more fruitful time on planet Earth,” she continued, adding later, “He chose, for many reasons, not to announce his illness publicly, and so, unfortunately, this may be new and shocking news to many of his fans.”
“We both apologize for this and please know that he has appreciated you all so much, as have I!”
