In Shonda Rhimes\u2019 \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy,\u201d Dane\u2019s Sloan was a welcome addition to Seattle Grace Hospital\u2019s staff of heartthrobs who couldn\u2019t seem to keep their gloved hands off each other amid shifts of wild and dramatic cases. He first appeared in Season 2 of \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d in 2006. Sloan, within minutes of his arrival, takes a punch to the face from Patrick Dempsey\u2019s Dr. Derek Shepherd and introduces himself to Ellen Pompeo\u2019s Meredith Grey as one of the fellow \u201cdirty mistresses\u201d who broke up Shepherd\u2019s marriage to ex-wife Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh). <\/p>\n
Dane had initially agreed to appear in only one episode of the long-running ABC drama, but remained a fixture \u2014 and eye candy for fans \u2014 for more than 130 episodes until 2012. Nicknamed \u201cMcSteamy\u201d for his looks, Sloan pursued relationships with Drs. Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) over the course of Dane\u2019s tenure. His character was killed off early in Season 9 after a devastating Season 8 plane crash<\/a> that also claimed the life of Leigh\u2019s Lexie. <\/p>\n In 2021, Dane returned to \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d for a cameo in Meredith\u2019s COVID-19-induced dreams.<\/p>\n Prior to breaking out with \u201cGrey\u2019s,\u201d Dane played minor roles in series including \u201cSaved by the Bell, \u201cRoseanne,\u201d \u201cGideon\u2019s Crossing\u201d and \u201cCharmed.\u201d Dane followed up his \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d tenure with appearances on the ABC spinoff \u201cPrivate Practice,\u201d a leading role in TNT\u2019s \u201cThe Last Ship\u201d and a stint as a secretive real estate developer and dad in HBO\u2019s teen drama \u201cEuphoria.\u201d<\/p>\n He also appeared in several movies following \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy,\u201d including \u201cX-Men: The Last Stand,\u201d \u201cMarley & Me,\u201d \u201cBurlesque\u201d and Garry Marshall\u2019s \u201cValentine\u2019s Day,\u201d which reunited him with co-star Dempsey.<\/p>\n Dane did not plan to be an actor until he unexpectedly landed a role in his high school\u2019s production of Arthur Miller\u2019s \u201cAll My Sons,\u201d but he \u201cfell in love with it,\u201d he told the Gulf Times in 2014.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was like this is the greatest feeling ever,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Eric William Dane was born Nov. 9, 1972, in San Francisco. His father, a Navy man-turned-architect, died of a gunshot wound when the actor was 7, leaving his mother to raise her two children with assistance from her parents. <\/p>\n Dane attended Sequoia High School and San Mateo High School but dropped out prior to graduation to pursue acting in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n He partied often in his 20s and first entered rehab at age 26. Amid his \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d fame, Dane struggled with addition to painkillers and prescription medicine. He relapsed in 2007 during the Writer\u2019s Guild of America strike, he recalled in 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart bring their daughters to the March 2015 world premiere of \u201cCinderella\u201d in L.A.<\/p>\n (Richard Shotwell \/ Invision \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n \u201cIf you take the whole eight years I was on \u2018Grey\u2019s Anatomy,\u2019 I was f\u2014 up longer than I was sober and that was when things started going sideways for me,\u201d he said at the time. Notably, he entered rehab again in 2011 to address issues with prescription drugs he had been prescribed for a sports injury.<\/p>\n Dane also spoke openly about his struggles with depression, which reached a head in 2017 amid production on his series \u201cThe Last Ship.\u201d During a 2017<\/a> \u201cToday\u201d appearance, Dane explained that he was taking medication to manage the disorder, which he said hit him \u201clike a truck.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had to take some time off,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cI went away, I took care of it, and I\u2019m feeling great.\u201d<\/p>\n Dane married \u201cLoving\u201d actor and model Rebecca Gayheart in 2004 in Las Vegas the same day he proposed to her. Infamously, their relationship was subject to scrutiny when in 2009 leaked video showed the spouses in the nude and intoxicated lounging in a bathtub with actor Kari Ann Peniche. Marty Singer, attorney for the spouses at the time, dismissed the controversy. <\/p>\n However, the couple separated in 2017 and Gayheart filed to divorce Dane in 2018, but the split was never finalized. Then in March 2025, right before he went public with his ALS, she filed a request to dismiss the original petition. <\/p>\n![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771561812_335_.jpeg\")
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