Eric Dane, the actor best known to Grey's Anatomy fans as Dr Mark "McSteamy" Sloan, has died at the age of 53, according to a statement shared with the Associated Press.
Dane arrived in Seattle Grace with movie star swagger and immediate history, but Mark Sloan didn’t stay as a nickname and a wink.
Over the years, he became one of the show’s most emotionally important characters: a brilliant surgeon, a messy friend, a surprising mentor, and a man who slowly learned how to be part of a family.
Eric Dane's top ten moments as Dr Mark Sloan in Grey's Anatomy:
1. The first walk-in (Season 2, Episode 18, Yesterday)
Dr Mark Sloan arrived at Seattle Grace as Derek Shepherd's old friend from New York, and Derek’s reaction told the audience everything.
He was introduced as the friend linked to Derek’s marriage problems with Addison Montgomery, Derek’s wife at the time, which immediately put pressure on Derek and Meredith Grey, the surgical intern Derek was dating...
2. The towel interruption and "McSteamy" (Season 3, Episode 2, I Am a Tree)
Derek went to Addison's hotel room to talk about their marriage, opened the door, and Mark emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, wearing just a towel!
It was instant hospital gossip, and it was where "McSteamy" took off as his in-house label before anyone bothered to talk about his surgical results.
3. "I didn’t come to Seattle for Addison. I came here for you." (Season 4, Episode 1, A Change Is Gonna Come)
Mark was the friend Derek blamed for wrecking that marriage after Mark slept with Addison in New York.
By Season 4, Addison had left Seattle, and Mark told Derek he hadn’t come for her, he’d come for him, putting their friendship and old resentment front and centre again.
4. "I bet you wish you’d taken the stairs." (Season 4, Episode 13, Piece of My Heart)
Derek stepped into the lift with Rose, the nurse he was dating at the time. Meredith got in. Then Addison got in, leaving Derek boxed in between his current relationship, his ex-wife, and the person he still wasn’t over.
The doors opened again, Mark walked on, took one look at the line-up, and delivered one of his most memorable lines before the lift doors even had time to close.
"I bet you wish you'd taken the stairs."
5. A confession and a punch (Season 5, Episode 16, An Honest Mistake)
Mark stopped Derek in the hospital and told him he had been sleeping with Lexie Grey, Meredith's younger sister and part of their intern group. Without skipping a beat, Derek punched Mark and it turned into a full corridor fight.
Dr Dreamy and Dr McSteamy had to be pulled apart and ended up being patched up, with Mark nursing a sprained arm.
6. The shooting (Season 6, Episodes 23–24, Sanctuary / Death and All His Friends)
During a hospital lockdown, Lexie and Mark tried to move to safety and found Alex Karev bleeding badly in an elevator.
Mark shifted straight into emergency mode, focused on keeping Alex alive with limited options while the threat stayed in the building.
7. "Sexual sorbet" (Season 7, Episode 9, Slow Night, So Long)
The attendings went out to celebrate Derek’s research grant, Bailey got drunk, and Mark nudged Callie towards a "sexual palate cleanser".
Bailey christened it "sexual sorbet", and the phrase stuck, especially because it fed directly into Callie’s pregnancy storyline with Mark.
8. Sofia’s set-up: Callie, Mark, Arizona (Season 7 onwards)
Callie became pregnant after her brief relationship with Mark during a period when she and Arizona were on and off, and the show committed to a three-adult co-parenting arrangement.
Mark’s Sofia-era scenes leaned into agreements, boundaries, handovers, and the day-to-day reality of fitting into a family McSteamy hadn’t expected.
9.The wreckage with Lexie (Season 8, Episode 24, Flight)
Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Arizona, Lexie and Mark boarded a small charter plane because Seattle Grace was sending a surgical team to Idaho for a case involving conjoined twins.
However, the plane crashed. Mark survived but was badly injured. He managed to stay with Lexie in her final moments after she was pinned under debris.
However, Mark's injuries would carry forward into the opening of Season 9...
10. The final run after the crash (Season 9, Episodes 1–2, Going, Going, Gone / Remember the Time)
Mark survived long enough to be brought back to Seattle after the plane crash, but his injuries left him in a critical condition in hospital.
The audience saw his brief improvement, then the turn, and his death was shown on screen in the early Season 9 episodes.
BONUS: The dream return with Meredith (Season 17, Episode 10, Breathe)
Mark appeared on the beach in Meredith’s dream sequence while she was critically ill, and Meredith spoke to him there about what was happening to her.
Lexie also appeared in the same beach setting, and the scene briefly placed Mark and Lexie together again before Meredith turned her attention back to the people keeping vigil at her bedside, happy in the knowledge that Mark and Lexie where together again.
