R.I.P. Edward Herrmann, St. Elsewhere's Father McCabe

TMZ reports that actor Edward Herrmann has passed away from cancer at age 71.

In St. Elsewhere's finest episode(s), the fourth season two-parter "Time Heals", we meet the hospital's founder, an Irish Catholic priest from Southie named Father Joseph McCabe, played by Edward Herrmann. McCabe re-appeared in the fifth season opener, "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby", returning from Arizona (with Herrmann in old-age makeup) suffering from ALS. For that appearance, Herrmann was nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Performance by a Guest Actor.

According to a report from TMZ, Herrmann had been battling brain cancer and had been in the ICU for the past three and half weeks. He was taken off life support and passed away this morning at the age of 71.

Herrmann was more recently known for his role on Gilmore Girls, and he assembled a long list of credits dating back to the early seventies. To 80s kids like me, he was the King of the Vampires in The Lost Boys.

Follow this link to a YouTube playlist to enjoy Edward Herrmann's performance in "Time Heals".

New Page Started: St. Elsewhere's Awards Haul

Introducing a listing of St. Elsewhere's formal honors, plus a few bits of awards trivia.

Made another new page, a list of awards that were bestowed upon St. Elsewhere during its six-year run. I've started with the 13 Emmy awards that the show won, and I intend to add nominations and other awards as well. The show received at least one Emmy award in each of its six seasons.

Some Emmy trivia:

• In 1986, William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett became the second real-life married couple to both win Emmys for playing a married couple. During that season, the fourth, the Craigs dealt with the death of their son Steven in a car accident, and cared for his newborn daughter while Steven's wife was in a coma.
• Also in 1986, the show's most heavily decorated season, four Emmy awards, for writing, costume design, sound mixing and art direction, went to the two-part episode "Time Heals", which contains flashbacks from the hospital's history as St. Eligius celebrates its 50th anniversary. The episode does an excellent job of making each time period look convincing and distinct.