LOS ANGELES -- Edward Herrmann, the incredibly prolific actor whose collection of intellectual and high-society characters included Richard Gilmore on Gilmore Girls and FDR (three times) has died. He was 71.
Herrmann died in a New York hospital on Thursday morning after a battle with brain cancer, TMZ first reported Wednesday, citing family sources.
Herrmann appeared in some 130 movies and television shows going back to 1971, making his mark as a young Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1976 TV movie Elanor and Franklin, which was followed in '77 by Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. He would play FDR again in the 1982 film Annie, and voiced the former president in a Ken Burns documentary.
In 1987 Herrmann took the role of Max in the brat-pack vampire classic The Lost Boys, playing a friendly neighbor whose character's twist would be one of the best of the decade. He also played Richard Rich in the 1994 film Richie Rich, and would tackle several challenging known characters after that, including Branch Rickey, Nelson Rockefeller and, in a TV movie, Herman Munster.
All the while he maintained a robust stage career, but would come to be known to a whole new audience when he took a role on Gilmore Girls in 2000. Co-star Lauren Graham tweeted her thoughts on Wednesday:
My friend Ed Herrmann was the kindest, classiest, most talented man. It was an honor and a joy to know him, a devastating blow to lose him.— Lauren Graham (@thelaurengraham) December 31, 2014