Eric Dane, the actor who played Dr. Mark Sloan—better known as “McSteamy”—on “Grey’s Anatomy” and the deeply troubled Cal Jacobs on HBO’s “Euphoria,” died Thursday from ALS. He was 53.
Dane was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—Lou Gehrig’s disease—less than a year ago, in April 2025. He spent his final months becoming a vocal advocate for ALS awareness, even speaking at a Washington news conference about health insurance prior authorization delays. The ALS Network named him advocate of the year last September.
His representatives said he died surrounded by his wife, actor Rebecca Gayheart, and their two teenage daughters, Billie and Georgia. “Throughout his journey with ALS, Eric became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same fight,” the statement read.
Dane’s big break came in 2006 when he joined the ABC medical drama that would define his career. His character was killed off in 2012 after a plane crash, but left such a mark that Seattle Grace Hospital was renamed Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in his honor. He returned for a guest appearance in 2021.
In 2019, he pivoted hard from charming TV doctor to playing the complicated, menacing Cal Jacobs in “Euphoria”—a role he continued until his death.
ALS progressively destroys the nerve cells needed to walk, talk, and breathe. Most patients die within three to five years of diagnosis. Dane made it less than one.
Born in Northern California in 1972, Dane lost his father—a Navy veteran and architect—to a gunshot wound when he was seven. He moved to Los Angeles after high school and grinded through guest spots on “Saved by the Bell,” “Married…With Children,” and “Charmed” before landing his breakthrough.
A memoir, “Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments,” is scheduled for late 2026 through Maria Shriver’s Penguin Random House imprint. “I want to capture the moments that shaped me—the beautiful days, the hard ones, the ones I never took for granted,” Dane said of the book.
His relationship with Gayheart was, in her words, “a very complicated relationship, one that’s confusing for people.” They married in 2004, separated in 2017, and she filed for divorce in 2018—then dismissed it. They lived apart and dated other people but never formally ended the marriage.
“Our love may not be romantic, but it’s a familial love,” Gayheart wrote in a December essay for The Cut. “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.”