Actor Eric Dane, best known for his starring role in the long-running ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, has died at 53.
Dane revealed in April 2025 that he’d been battling the incurable degenerative neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
“My left side is functioning; my right side has completely stopped working,” Dane told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in June 2025, adding that he was rapidly losing voluntary function in his left arm: “I feel like maybe a couple, few more months and I won’t have my left hand either.”
Born on Nov. 9, 1972, in San Francisco, California, Dane caught the acting bug in high school and made his television debut in a 1991 episode of Saved by the Bell. More roles followed in shows including The Wonder Years, Roseanne, Married… with Children and others. Dane’s profile rose when he was cast in the recurring role of Jason Dean for two seasons of the long-running hit supernatural series Charmed.
But Dane’s breakout role was that of plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Sloan in the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, which he played for eight seasons beginning in 2006. His character – referred to on the show by female characters as “McSteamy,” because of his good looks – made him a star.
In a 2025 interview with Diane Sawyer, Dane recalled one of his most memorable McSteamy scenes, early on his run on the show, in which he emerged from a steam-filled bathroom, barely clad in a towel. That moment, one of Grey’s Anatomy’s most talked-about, cemented Dane’s status as a prime time TV heartthrob – yet he had no idea then of the lasting impact it would have.
“In the moment, it was just another scene to me,” he said. “I just remember walking out of a bathroom where a very nice gentleman was kind of blowing smoke towards me.”
Following his character’s departure from the show in 2012, Dane starred as Cmdr. Tom Chandler, the commanding officer of a U.S. Navy destroyer during a deadly global pandemic, in the TNT action drama The Last Ship. Dane played the role for the show’s five-season run, which ended in 2018. The following year, he was cast in the hit HBO drama Euphoria as Cal Jacobs, the closeted father of actor Jacob Elordi’s character, Nate.
Most recently, Dane starred in the 2025 Amazon Prime crime drama Countdown.
In addition to the television work for which he was best known, Dane also enjoyed a film career, with roles in movies including X-Men: The Last Stand, Marley & Me, Burlesque, Dangerous Waters and 2024’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
In November 2025, Dane, the progression of his disease apparent, made a guest appearance on the TV drama Brilliant Minds, playing a firefighter with ALS who kept his diagnosis from his family.
Despite his ALS diagnosis, Dane told Diane Sawyer in 2025 that he was “very hopeful” about his future.
“I don’t think this is the end of my story,” he said. “And whether it is or it isn’t, I’m gonna carry that idea with me.”
Dane is survived by two daughters, whom he shares with the actress Rebecca Gayheart.
Gayheart and Dane married in October 2004. Gayheart filed for divorce in 2018 but later requested to dismiss that petition in March 2025, a month before Dane went public with his ALS diagnosis.
In a December 2025 essay for The Cut, Gayheart wrote that she and Dane never got a divorce, describing their relationship as a “familial love.”
“It’s a very complicated relationship, one that’s confusing for people. Our love may not be romantic, but it’s a familial love,” she wrote. “Eric knows that I am always going to want the best for him. That I’m going to do my best to do right by him. And I know he would do the same for me.”
She continued, “So whatever I can do or however I can show up to make this journey better for him or easier for him, I want to do that. And I want to model that for my girls: That’s what you do. That’s the right thing to do.”
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