It’s always tough to lose a friend. It’s exponentially tougher when that friend leaves behind a wife and four children, who will no longer have their husband and father in their lives, and who should remain in all our prayers.

Add to that just how huge a figure Andrew Breitbart had become in the conservative movement, and you will begin to understand just how big a loss we all suffered last night, when we lost a giant.

Larry Solov announced Andrew’s passing at Big Journalism:

With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart. Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.

We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior. Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love. Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation: I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.

Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night. Andrew is at rest, yet the happy warrior lives on, in each of us.

Jim Geraghty confirmed that Andrew passed away last night at UCLA medical center.

Andrew was larger than life in many ways. A huge man with an even bigger personality (and a still bigger family), he was kind and generous to a fault, and had a level of dedication and tenacity that few of us will ever be able to understand.

Though he was viewed by many on the left as the reincarnation of the Prince of Darkness himself – a persona he worked very hard to maintain – Andrew was a kind man who cared as passionately for his fellow man as he did for the conservative cause.

I consider myself lucky to have counted him as a personal friend. Whether it was a week we spent in Israel a few years ago or one of several telephone conversations that took place well after midnight (including once when he had run out of gas down the street from the Playboy mansion and was looking for someone to shoot the bull with while waiting on AAA to arrive), I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to know the man behind the persona – and I can say, without reservation, that Andrew Breitbart the man was fully deserving of every posthumous accolade he will receive today and in the future.

He also deserves a conservative movement that will carry on his work, with the same courage and dedication he brought to it every day, and with the same attitude he conveyed in his conclusion to Righteous Indignation:

I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.

Rest in peace, Andrew.