Kelly Bishop Reveals Final Words to ‘Gilmore Girls’ Costar Ed Herrmann

Kelly Bishop’s love for her late Gilmore Girls costar Edward Herrmann went far beyond their TV portrayal of east coast socialites Emily and Richard Gilmore. The pair were close friends until Herrmann’s death in 2014.

Bishop recalls in her new memoir, The Third Gilmore Girl, that she was one of very few people who were asked to come and “say goodbye to Ed” by his wife, Star. (Herrmann died in December 2014 after battling brain cancer. He was 71.)

“It was so thoughtful, and generous, and touching of her; and while saying goodbye to Ed was one of the last things I ever wanted to do, I wasn’t about to say no,” Bishop — who played Herrmann’s TV wife, Emily Gilmore, from 2000 to 2007 — writes in the book, released on Tuesday, September 17.

The actress remembers thinking that there would be “other castmates” in the hospital room when she arrived, but it was just family. When Bishop visited the New York hospital, Herrmann was in a coma and on life support. “I think I just stood there looking at him for several seconds, trying to process the incomprehensible reality of it,” she confesses, noting that she was taken aback when Star asked if she wanted to “talk to him.”

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Bishop knew that she would “regret it” for the rest of her life if she didn’t “summon up the courage to get past all those tubes and beeping monitors and focus on the fact that this was Ed lying there.”

In that moment she was able to see her “great pal, my set buddy, my extraordinary ‘husband’ for seven years.” Bishop mustered up the courage to speak with Herrmann, deciding to keep it “short and sweet,” joking, “I’ll bet [that] surprised him.”

Bishop chose to bring up their Gilmore Girls family, including Lauren Graham, who played their TV daughter, Lorelai, and Alexis Bledel, who portrayed their granddaughter, Rory. Bishop also mentioned the show’s creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, in her final words.

“I walked over to stand beside his bed, took his surprisingly [warm] hand, and told him that ‘Lauren, Amy, and Alexis sent their love,’” Bishop recalls. “Then Star said, ‘You can kiss him goodbye.’ So, I simply kissed him on the forehead, left a lip print, and whispered, ‘Tell them that’s from me.’”

Despite being able to visit Herrmann on his deathbed, Bishop reveals in her book that she “hadn’t even known he was sick until one day a couple of weeks before he died.”

She learned about Herrmann’s brain cancer diagnosis while reading a story about him and his business manager in the newspaper. “I called Lauren and Amy,” Bishop writes, noting that the trio of women “struggled to even figure out what to say beyond, ‘Oh my God’ and ‘Please don’t let this be true.’”

After news broke of his death, Bishop released a statement about the immense loss. “We, the Gilmore Girls family, are so terribly sad and somewhat stunned,” she said in January 2015. “I think everyone who knew or worked with Ed found him to be absolutely delightful … Everything looks a little dim, as if the lights went down.”

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Graham, 57, tweeted her condolences at the time, writing, “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.”

Bledel, meanwhile, told TVLine in a statement, “Ed Herrmann was a wonderful actor and a kind man. He was endlessly knowledgeable about theater, TV and film, and would generously share his wisdom or tell stories from a long and rewarding career. I am grateful to him for that, and will miss him tremendously. He loved acting and was the head of our Gilmore family with his strong presence and great sense of humor. May he rest in peace.”

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Nearly a decade after Herrmann died, Bishop still has fond memories of their time together on Gilmore Girls. She recalls in her memoir how instantly she connected with him and Graham upon their initial meeting.

“You know those rare people you’re introduced to for the first time and instead of saying, ‘Nice to meet you,’ you’re tempted to say, ‘Oh, there you are’’? As if you’re not new to each other, you’re actually old friends who’ve just been waiting for a chance to reconnect,” Bishop writes. “That’s how I felt with Lauren Graham, who was playing my daughter, Lorelai, and Ed Herrmann, who was playing my husband, Richard. From the moment we started rehearsing, we ‘got’ each other, and we trusted each other.”

The Third Gilmore Girl is on bookshelves now.