Grey’s Anatomy, Euphoria star Eric Dane has neurological disorder ALS
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Eric Dane is best known for playing Dr Mark Sloan, head of plastic surgery at the Seattle hospital in Grey’s Anatomy.
PHOTO: ERIC DANE/FACEBOOK
Hank Sanders
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LOS ANGELES – American actor Eric Dane, known as the plastic surgeon nicknamed McSteamy in the hit TV series Grey’s Anatomy (2005 to present), told People magazine that he has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
He told the magazine that he was grateful for his family’s support and was excited to return soon to the set of the HBO show Euphoria (2019 to present).
The 52-year-old is married to American actress Rebecca Gayheart, 53, and the couple share two daughters aged 13 and 15.
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a neurological disorder that degrades a patient’s ability to control muscles, speak and eventually breathe without assistance.
While ALS patients often die within five years of being diagnosed, clinical trials for potential therapies have generated hope about extending a patient’s life by several months.
Dane began acting in the early 1990s with small parts in television shows, first in Saved By The Bell (1989 to 1993) and later in Married With Children (1987 to 1997).
Over the years, his charm and boyish good looks earned him recurring roles on Gideon’s Crossing (2000 to 2001), where he played a doctor, and on Charmed (1998 to 2006).
His breakout moment came in 2006 in another medical role, this time as a leading man in Grey’s Anatomy, which was renewed for a 22nd season in 2025, making it one of the most successful TV shows of all time.
Donning a white lab coat and sporting a well-kept beard and perfectly messy hair, Dane portrayed Dr Mark Sloan, the head of plastic surgery at the Seattle hospital where the series was based. The hospital was later renamed after his character, who died on the show.
Dane’s most prominent role recently has been on the television show Euphoria, where he portrays the closeted father of toxic high school student Nate Jacobs, played by Australian actor Jacob Elordi.
Although Dane usually plays a handsome supporting character, he has taken on a range of roles that deviated from that, including as a hired killer in the movie Bad Boys: Ride Or Die (2024).
“Television is the land of pretty people,” American journalist Lynn Hirschberg wrote for The New York Times in 2009. The article went on to quote American actor George Clooney, another handsome man, as he waxed poetic about Dane.
“He’s good-looking and he has a sense of humour. That’s rare,” Clooney said. NYTIMES
