Friends and former costars of Eric Dane are paying tribute to the actor after his death at the age of 53.
Dane’s death was confirmed Thursday by ABC News.
The actor, a father of two, revealed in April 2025 that he’d been battling the incurable degenerative neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Eric Dane attends the Global Down Syndrome Foundation’s 14th Annual Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show on November 12, 2022 in Denver, Colorado.
Thomas Cooper/Getty Images for Global Down Syn
As recently as December, Dane said on a panel that he hoped to continue acting in roles involving ALS, saying, “It’s imperative that I share my journey with as many people as I can, because I don’t feel like my life is about me anymore.”
Actor Ashton Kutcher, a friend of Dane’s, was among the first to publicly pay tribute to the late “Grey’s Anatomy” star, writing on X Thursday, “The Franklin strip fanatics fantasy football league will miss Mr. Eric Dane. We know you’ll be watching from the booth. Miss you, buddy. Let’s keep fighting the fight to solve ALS.”
In addition to “Grey’s Anatomy,” on which he portrayed Dr. Mark Sloan, Dane also starred in shows including “Charmed,” “Euphoria” and “Countdown” as well as films including “Marley & Me” and “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” according to his IMDb biography.
Alyssa Milano, who costarred with Dane on “Charmed,” shared photos of Dane on Instagram, writing, “I can’t stop seeing that spark in Eric’s eye right before he’d say something that would either make you spit out your drink or rethink your entire perspective. He had a razor-sharp sense of humor. He loved the absurdity of things. He loved catching people off guard. And when it came to his daughters and Rebecca, everything in him softened. He carried them with him even in rooms where they weren’t present. You could see it in the way his voice changed when he said their names. A breathtakingly beautiful family.”
Milano continued, “The spark. The mischief. The tenderness he kept guarded but never totally hidden. He convinced me to get my pixie cut and my nose piercing. He also was with me on the walk when we found Lucy, my beloved rescue chihuahua. He called me ‘Milano,’ as if it was the only part of my name that mattered. My heart is with the people who were lucky enough to be his home.”
Born on Nov. 9, 1972, in San Francisco, Dane caught the acting bug in high school and made his television debut in a 1991 episode of “Saved by the Bell.”
Dane is survived by his 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.
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