EDWARD HERRMANN is dead at 71

                       

Edward Herrmann -- perhaps best known for playing Richard Gilmore on "Gilmore Girls" -- died this morning in a hospital in New York. He was 71.

TMZ reports that, he had been battling brain cancer and had been in ICU for the last 3 1/2 weeks. Ultimately, things did not improve and his family decided to take him off the respirator.

Herrmann was married twice and leaves behind five children.