Kelly Bishop Husband: Who Was the Gilmore Girls Star Married To?
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It’s safe to say that Kelly Bishop has had a super successful career. And there’s been one person that’s been by her side through her meteoric rise.
Kelly was happily married to her husband up until 2018 until he sadly passed away.
Let’s look back at Kelly’s long-term relationship with her famous husband.
Kelly Bishop Husband
Kelly Bishop’s husband was Lee Leonard, a TV talk show host. He was the first-ever voice of TV channel ESPN, and was crucial to its launch back in 1979.
He then went on to co-anchor SportsCenter, the network’s flagship news and highlights programme.
But Leonard didn’t stay with ESPN particularly long though. He gave it up after just six months, as the network had promised entertainment and showbiz coverage that never materialised.
Speaking with author James Andrew Miller, the TV host said:
“I was tired of sports.
So when it became obvious to me that there wasn’t going to be any entertainment… I thought this thing is never going to work. So my agent called me and said, ‘there’s this crazy guy, Ted Turner, who’s doing a news network’.”
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Lee then made the jump to CNN, around the same time he got hitched with Kelly Bishop.
From here, Lee Leonard became a household name. He went on to have huge success on the entertainment show People Tonight, as well as Showbiz Today and Jersey’s Talking.
Passing
Lee was at the height of his fame when he and Kelly Bishop tied the knot in 1981.
The couple had a whopping 37 years of marriage, and raised one daughter during that time.
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But in 2018, tragedy struck.
After a short illness, Lee passed away at the age of 89.
Kelly didn’t really speak about the loss of her husband at the time of his death, but ESPN was quick to pay tribute to Lee and his time with the network.
Long-time ESPN anchor Bob Levy told the press:
“His presence and friendship in the early months of ESPN meant a lot both personally and professionally.
Lee brought a great deal of credibility and needed experience to ESPN at a critical time in the network’s development. He was also a great dinner partner.”
Career
Despite the loss of her husband, Kelly Bishop has continued her career in TV and film.
While she has tons of projects under her belt, the actress is still best known for her time on Gilmore Girls, where she played fan-favourite Emily Gilmore for seven seasons with her on-screen husband Edward Herrmann. They played loving grandparents Emily and Richard Gilmore.
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Kelly and Edward quickly became one of television’s favourite couples in 2000, but in reality, their story began in 1976.
The pair had originally met at the Tony Awards for their performances on Broadway; Kelly had won Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, while Edward won Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play.
When they joined Gilmore Girls, they were already friends, and enjoyed many years both on and off set together.
When Edward Herrmann passed away in 2016, Kelly was devastated about the loss of her on-screen husband.
She spoke candidly about their close bond to TVLine:
“We so miss him. We’ve missed him since we found out he had died…
We, obviously, were older [than the rest of the cast]. But we were also New York actors, and we connected very well. We always did our crossword puzzles together in the hair-and-makeup room. That was one of our little routines. There was a comfort level…It’s going to be hard without him.”
