© 2024 WYPR
WYPR 88.1 FM Baltimore WYPF 88.1 FM Frederick WYPO 106.9 FM Ocean City
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

'Gilmore Girls' Actor Edward Herrmann, Who Also Portrayed FDR, Dies

By Krishnadev Calamur
Published December 31, 2014 at 5:03 PM EST
Edward Herrmann, the first to arrive for a group portrait session of approximately 100 Tony Award-winning actors, keeps busy before the shoot on June 1, 2006, at the Shubert Theatre in New York. Herrmann died Wednesday in New York at the age of 71. He had brain cancer.
Diane Bondareff
/
AP
Edward Herrmann, the first to arrive for a group portrait session of approximately 100 Tony Award-winning actors, keeps busy before the shoot on June 1, 2006, at the Shubert Theatre in New York. Herrmann died Wednesday in New York at the age of 71. He had brain cancer.

Edward Herrmann, the actor perhaps best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals in the 1970s of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and more recently for his role as Richard Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, has died at the age of 71 in New York, his manager confirmed in a statement. The cause was brain cancer.

"Besides being an accomplished actor, [he] was also a true gentleman and a scholar, as well as being an incredibly kind and decent man," Robbie Kass, his manager, said in an emailed statement. "He will be sorely missed."

Actress Lauren Graham, who played Herrmann's daughter on Gilmore Girls, called his death "a devastating blow."

Herrmann was nominated for Emmy awards multiple times and won in 1999 for his role in The Practice.

He portrayed Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin in 1976 and Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years in 1977. He earned Best Actor Emmy nominations for both made-for-TV movies. He also earned Emmy nominations for two appearances on St. Elsewhere.

For seven years, until 2007, Herrmann played Richard Gilmore onGilmore Girls.From 2010 to 2013, he appeared in CBS'The Good Wifeas a defense attorney.

He won a Best Actor in a Play Tony Award in 1976 for his performance in Mrs. Warren's Profession.In movies, Herrmann played Max, the head vampire in The Lost Boys, and more recently appeared in The Wolf of Wall Street.

Herrmann was also known for his voice work, including in Ken Burns' recent PBS documentary, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.

David Bianculli, TV critic for WHYY'sFresh Air,noted that Herrmann's vocal performance as Roosevelt brought "the man to life again ... with such authority and accuracy, that his vocal impersonation stands proudly alongside recordings of the real Franklin."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Krishnadev Calamur
Krishnadev Calamur is NPR's deputy Washington editor. In this role, he helps oversee planning of the Washington desk's news coverage. He also edits NPR's Supreme Court coverage. Previously, Calamur was an editor and staff writer at The Atlantic. This is his second stint at NPR, having previously worked on NPR's website from 2008-15. Calamur received an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.
See stories by Krishnadev Calamur