Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | News | February 20, 2026
Eric Dane passed away yesterday after a battle with ALS. He announced his diagnosis less than a year ago and had begun experiencing symptoms in early 2024. By June 2025, he’d lost the use of his right arm, and by October, he was in a wheelchair. It all seemed to happen so quickly.
Dane, of course, was best known for playing Dr. Mark Sloan, aka McSteamy, for more than six seasons of Grey’s Anatomy and, more recently, for playing Cal Jacobs on HBO’s Euphoria. He also led The Last Ship on TNT for five seasons, recurred in Charmed, and starred in a number of movies, including Burlesque and Bad Boys: Ride or Die. He was last seen on camera playing an ALS patient in Brilliant Minds.
For what it’s worth, the ALS diagnosis also seemed to bring Dane and his ex-wife, Rebecca Gayheart, closer together — she dismissed a divorce petition after seven years of separation. He leaves behind two daughters.
It’s been a rough month, with unexpected losses of Dane, James Van Der Beek, Robert Duvall, and Catherine O’Hara, among others. All I can think about are the words of Coach Taylor: “What we have is special and it can be taken from us, and when it is taken from us, we will be tested. We will be tested to our very souls. It is these times. It is this pain that allows us to look inside ourselves.”
Rest in peace, Eric Dane. May his memory be a blessing.
