Edward Herrmann, best known for his role as Richard Gilmore on TV’s Gilmore Girls, died today at a hospital in New York, according to TMZ, which reports that the actor had been battling brain cancer. He was 71.

The Washington D.C.-born Herrmann had been in ICU for the last 3 1/2 weeks and when his condition did not improve, his family made the decision to have him taken off the respirator, the actor’s family reportedly told TMZ.

As 2014 comes to a close, we take a moment at Geeks Of Doom to remember all the fallen entertainment figures in film and television who left us this year. This year, we gave a farewell to a large array of heavyweights, cult heroes, pioneering figures, and sentimental favorites who were among those who have passed on in a physical sense, but leaving the memories, the ones that they made in the past and the ones each of their fans have in regards to them.

Voice actor Christine Cavanaugh, whose distinctive sound gave life and a memorable personality to little Chuckie Finster on the popular Nickelodeon animated series Rugrats, has died at the age of 51. The actress passed away on December 22nd, and the cause of death has not yet been revealed.

In addition to Rugrats, Cavanaugh will also be best remembered as the voice of Babe the pig in the 1995 live-action movie Babe, and as Dexter from the animated series Dexter’s Laboratory.

As 2014 is just about at an end, we take a moment at Geeks Of Doom to remember the fallen musicians who left us this year. A large array of heavyweights, cult heroes, pioneering figures, and sentimental favorites are among those who have left us in a physical sense, but the memories that they made in the past and the ones that each of their fans have in regards to them will never leave.

A list of some of our (and probably yours as well) fallen heroes is below.

Mike Nichols, famed director, writer, actor, and comedian (paired as a comedy team with Elaine May), who conquered Hollywood and the entertainment world in many facets and culminated a career which won him scores of accolades and unbridled success, has died. He was 83.

There really wasn’t much of the show business landscape that wasn’t treaded by the sharp mind and extremely creative talents of Mike Nichols, husband to ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer since 1988. His crowning achievement is The Graduate — in which he won a Best Director Academy Award in 1968 and which remains a film that is one of Hollywood’s most memorable productions — was one of the first films for the youth culture of the 1960s with themes of anti-establishment towards authority of every stripe. Nichols employed keen, perceptive direction throughout the comedy/drama, using memorable set pieces to tell a flawless story. (The opening sequence, in which the film’s protagonist Dustin Hoffman is on a long airport conveyor belt, is indicative of Nichols’ style throughout The Graduate).