Gil-no-more

Edward Herrmann, perennial special guest star as patriarch Richard Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, has died of brain cancer at the age of 71. The fraternal triplet of Egon Spengler and Hoover from Animal House, Herrmann pulled off the rare feat of playing both America’s most famous crippled President – Franklin Delano Roosevelt – in an Emmy-nominated performance, and a year later playing America’s most famous crippled baseball player – Lou Gehrig, in another TV movie. He played a law student who cracked under pressure in The Paper Chase and a battle-hardened surgeon who finds his limit in an episode of MASH. His patrician bearing and voice led to a long string of roles as politicians, priests, and Bucky Larson’s reformed porn star father, as well as steady narration work as the spokesman for Dodge, and pretty much everything on The History Channel.