The West Wing's John Spencer Dies

Spencer played Leo McGarry, the chief of staff to President Jeb Bartlet (Martin Sheen) through the first few seasons of the NBC series. In a sad parallel to life, his character suffered a heart attack that forced him to give up his White House job.
(CNN)

This sucks. I really like this guy. His character was one of those guys that makes a show work. When they took his character out of the West Wing, the show started to go really flat. He was very much a part of the success for the show, and I suspect he was a key to it's future, as well.

I have suspected from the beginning of the season that something was going to happen to Jimmy Smits' character Matt Santos after the election. This would make Leo the President who gets out of the limo at the Bartlett Library Dedication (which they teased us with, never giving us a name or a face).

This cripples the show in a big way, just when it was getting a second stride going...

Statement and Obit.