Eric Dane joined the cast of Grey's Anatomy in 2006 as plastic surgeon Mark Sloan, a.k.a.
McSteamy.
Since leaving Grey's, Dane's star power has only been growing brighter.
And Dane has navigated both heartache and healing in his personal life.
Here's what Eric Dane is doing now.
In 2009, while Eric Dane was still on the ever-popular series Grey's Anatomy as Mark
Sloan, private footage of him, his wife, and another woman appeared on the Internet.
Danes' lawyer released a statement warning people not to publicize the intimate video.
The statement read,
"This is simply a private, consensual moment involving a married couple, shot several years
ago, which was never intended to be seen by the public.
Although the participants are nude, the tape is not a 'sex tape.'
It is a private tape made for only my clients' personal use, and nobody has the right to
exploit it."
Eric Dane and actress Rebecca Gayheart have two young daughters who can often be spotted
on their mom's Instagram.
Older sister Billie Beatrice was born in March 2010, as reported by People, and Georgia Geraldine
was born soon afterward in December 2011.
When Dane appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in February 2010, not long before his first daughter
was born, Dane revealed that he and Gayheart had chosen a name for their child, but wanted
to wait until the baby was born to commit to it.
He explained,
"Rebecca wants to wait to see her before we start calling her [by name].
You want to make sure that the name sticks."
Kimmel asked if he would opt for a regular baby name or one of those crazy celebrity
names, and Dane replied that his daughter's moniker would be right down the middle.
While Dane's handsome doctor character Mark Sloan was only supposed to appear in one episode
of Grey's Anatomy, he apparently made such an impression on fans that Shonda Rhimes decided
to permanently add him to the show's cast.
Rhimes wrote in the character’s obituary for Entertainment Weekly,
"From the moment ABC aired the scene in which Meredith...dubbed him McSteamy, I began to
get letters from fans...It was clear that we were going to need to see Mark Sloan back
at Seattle Grace again."
As Dane revealed in an August 2019 interview with Glamour, his role in Grey's Anatomy spilled
over into his real life, as fans assumed the man behind McSteamy was as promiscuous, flirtatious,
and seductive as his character.
And, according to Dane, he leaned into the public's perception, saying that he felt like
he had an artistic obligation to lean into that part of the character.
He explained,
"I think at the end of the day, you tend to give people what they're asking for, because
it's the path of least resistance."
"Are you hitting on me?
In a hospital?"
"Would that be wrong?"
The finale of the eighth season of Grey's Anatomy featured an infamous plane crash that
killed off multiple main characters and took one main character's leg.
The fate of Dane's character, cosmetic surgeon Mark Sloan, was unclear at the end of that
season.
But in the ninth season premiere, they officially pulled the plug on him, literally.
As we said before, His death was so heartbreaking, Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes even
wrote an obituary for the character in Entertainment Weekly.
She explained that the end of Mark Sloan was a great loss for her as a writer and for the
show, and noted that the character is survived by his fellow doctors at Seattle Grace, as
well as every woman who ever imagined what it might be like to have a little McSteamy
between her sheets.
Eric Dane's first starring TV role after appearing as Mark Sloan on Grey's Anatomy was on the
TNT series The Last Ship.
The cable show, which premiered in 2014, aired its fifth and final season in summer 2018.
News that the show had been canceled was announced in May 2018, as reported by The Hollywood
Reporter.
Dane played Tom Chandler, the leader of a naval crew searching for the cure for a virus
that has wiped out 80 percent of the population.
Dane's role in The Last Ship was announced barely one month after he left Grey's Anatomy.
How did the roles compare?
Dane told the Los Angeles Times,
"This role is a lot more physical.
My shirt stays on, but I feel like I'm in better shape."
Dane's TNT show The Last Ship was about the Navy, though it was also about an apocalyptic
future where an illness has killed most of the people on Earth.
Despite the show's creative license, Dane apparently made the Navy proud in his starring
role on the series.
In 2016, the team behind the show was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Award, the
highest civilian honor, by then-Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, for getting the Navy
right.
In a post that has since been deleted, Dane showed off the certificate on Instagram, and
wrote,
"My life can be somewhat surreal at times."
In 2017, The Last Ship went on hiatus during the production of the fifth season so Dane
could manage his depression.
At the time, his rep told Variety,
"Eric asked for a break to deal with personal issues.
He suffers from depression and has asked for a few weeks of downtime and the producers
kindly granted that request."
Dane eventually returned to work and later revealed on Today that he began taking medication
and didn't feel depressed anymore.
"I was like, seeing these doctors, thinking that there was something physically wrong
with me, because I’d never felt like that.
I mean, I’d dealt with depression throughout my life, it was always manageable."
But he urged people to listen to their bodies and set an example that it's okay to take
a breather when you're not well.
In 2017, Eric Dane starred in the feature film Grey Lady about a Boston police officer
who travels to Nantucket to solve the murder of his partner, played by his real-life wife
at the time, Rebecca Gayheart.
The movie follows his character, James Doyle, as he hunts for the killer of his late partner
on the remote island of Nantucket.
The film received mixed-to-negative reviews and has a 50 percent user score on Rotten
Tomatoes.
The Los Angeles Times critic Gary Goldstein wrote,
"[It] aims for the gravity of such other Bay State-set mystery-thrillers as Mystic River
and Gone Baby Gone, but barely scratches the surface of those far more elevated films."
One of Dane's post-Grey's Anatomy projects was a hot, steamy Lean Cuisine commercial.
Dane shared the ad on Instagram in summer 2017 and wrote,
"Thank you for all the tremendous support...Let's celebrate with a commercial!"
The commercial connected the McSteamy persona with the literal steam required to cook a
frozen dinner in the microwave because, well, you get it.
And it definitely did make cold broccoli seem hotter.
Dane might have made a name for himself by portraying a playboy plastic surgeon on Grey's
Anatomy, but according to the actor, his real life is much more centered around his family.
In a June 2014 interview with People, Dane opened up about the fallout that happened
in 2009, after the private video featuring himself, another woman, and wife Rebecca Gayheart
surfaced, as well as his 2011 rehab stint for a painkiller addiction.
He said,
"We've all made mistakes...My one regret is that I got the person I love most wrapped
up in all that: Rebecca."
There's a reason family is at the center of Dane's world.
According to the interview, Dane's father died when he was only 7 years old, a tragedy
that continues to shape the actor's perspective on life and family.
Dane told People that he never really had a family growing up, so he knows how lucky
he is to have one now.
"I have a way about me.
I’m a man who is who he is.
I have a right to be that man."
Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart, started proceedings to get a divorce in 2018.
The Blast got their hands on the documents the actress filed in February 2018, which
show she asked for joint legal and physical custody of the couple's two young daughters,
Billie and Georgia.
The two celebrities released a joint statement to E! News, revealing,
"After 14 years together we have decided that ending our marriage is the best decision for
our family.
We will continue our friendship and work as a team to co-parent our two beautiful girls
as they are the most important thing in the world to us.
We kindly ask that you respect our privacy during this time as we navigate the next phase
of our lives."
After seemingly disappearing from the public eye for a few years, Dane made his return
to the screen in the 2015 mini-series The Fixer.
In it, Dane played Carter, a mysterious man who informs investigator Ellie Molaro about
the underground world of a group known as the "Fixers."
Carter plans to take the bad guys down, and enlists the reluctant investigator's help
in doing so.
Dane’s co-sar, Kathleen Robertson, told Entertainment Focus that she and Dane had
a lot of stunts in all of their scenes, and that the shoot consisted of long hours jumping
in the water, getting filthy, and sweating and running around.
Luckily, Dane prepared for the physically taxing role by training rigorously.
In an interview, the actor told Wonderwall.com he'd been laying low in the months prior to
shooting The Fixer, revealing,
"I'll be playing a mercenary who works for a shadowy organization...so it's good that
I've been training!"
While Eric Dane didn't mind the magnetic nature of his Grey's Anatomy character, he was itching
to show his range once his time on the hit ABC show came to an end.
According to Dane, the darkness of Euphoria immediately sparked his interest, and portraying
Cal Jacobs on the HBO drama would provide an opportunity to further shed his McSteamy
skin while also tapping into some of his real-life experiences.
He told Glamour,
"I understand what it's like to lead a double life...I've certainly had my struggles with
alcoholism, drug addiction, mental health, and I know what it's like to have to put up
a facade and have an external experience not match the internal experience."
While it may center around high school students, HBO's Euphoria doesn't shy away from showing
some darker aspects of the teenage experience, including statutory r---.
In Euphoria's pilot episode, Eric Dane's character, Cal Jacobs gets intimate with 17-year-old
Jules Vaughn after the transgender girl lies to him about her age.
As noted by Entertainment Weekly, the controversial scene required Dane to expose himself and
required the on-set presence of an intimacy expert.
He told the outlet,
"Those scenes are very difficult to shoot...It helps to have...somebody that is an advocate
for the actors."
However, Dane didn't hesitate to bare it all for Euphoria, noting that he was willing to
do anything that's crucial to creating a very real and truthful feel to how the story should
go.
Rebecca Gayheart filed for divorce from Dane in February 2018 but, according to court documents,
the couple had yet to finalize their divorce as of June 2019.
The court documents filed to the couple outlined the steps that were required in order for
Dane and Gayheart's divorce to become official.
And, as People noted, the judge threatened a possible dismissal of the case if Dane and
Gayheart failed to follow up and provide the required documentation in a timely manner.
As of early 2020, Dane and Gayheart still appeared to be legally married.
While both stars have remained fairly mum on the status of their relationship, Gayheart
did take to Instagram to reveal she'd celebrated the new year with her estranged spouse, their
two young daughters, and a group of pals.
She captioned the photo,
"I was unsuccessful in getting a family photo so here are a few pics from our last day of
2019 and a few from today the first day of 2020."
Dane has played a number of impactful roles throughout his career.
However, it's safe to say no television part has been as impactful or important as Dane's
real-life role as a supporter of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.
In November 2019, the Global Down Syndrome Foundation hosted the 11th annual "Be Beautiful,
Be Yourself" fashion show, which is attended each year by major celebrities and serves
as a fundraiser for the foundation's various programs.
Dane dressed to the nines to attend the fashion show, and he was honored with the opportunity
to walk alongside Megan Bombgaars, the 2019 recipient of the Quincy Jones Exceptional
Advocacy Award.
He gushed about his date on Instagram, saying,
"What an honor to walk alongside Megan Bomgaars at the 11th Annual Global Down Syndrome Foundation's
Fashion Show.
A beautiful night with exceptional people and advocates.
Thank you for having me."
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