Edward Kirk Herrmann (born July 21, 1943) is an American television and film actor.
Herrmann was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Jean Eleanor (née O'Connor) and John Anthony Herrmann. He has German ancestry on his father's side. Herrmann grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and graduated from Bucknell University in 1965, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi. He studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on a Fulbright Fellowship.
Herrmann is known for his uncanny portrayal of American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the made-for-TV movie, Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and the sequel, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977) (both of which earned him Best Actor Emmy nominations), as well as the first feature film adaptation of the Broadway musical Annie (1982). Herrmann portrayed Herman Munster in the Fox made for TV movie Here Come The Munsters in 1995.
Herrmann also earned an Emmy in 1999 for his guest appearances on The Practice and a Tony Award in 1976 for his performance in Mrs. Warren's Profession. He was nominated for a Tony for Plenty in 1983 and Emmys in 1986 and 1987 for his guest-starring role as Father Joseph McCabe on St. Elsewhere. Herrmann also played Tobias Beecher's father on Oz. From 2000 to 2007, he portrayed Richard Gilmore in a recurring role on the CW's Gilmore Girls.
Herrmann's film career began in the mid-1970s, playing supporting roles as Robert Redford's partner in The Great Waldo Pepper, a law student in The Paper Chase, and the idle, piano-playing Klipspringer in The Great Gatsby. Among Herrmann's better known roles are as Goldie Hawn's rich husband in Overboard, Reverend Michael Hill in Disney's The North Avenue Irregulars, one of the characters in the film-within-a-film in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo, and as Max, the mild-mannered head vampire in the teen vampire film The Lost Boys.
Herrmann is also known for his voluminous voice work for The History Channel and various PBS specials, and has been the "voice of Dodge" for twelve years. His voice work also includes dozens of audio books, including Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Herrmann is a well-known automotive enthusiast and restores classic automobiles. He is the MC for the Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance every August and hosts the television show Automobiles on The History Channel.
His papers are currently housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.
