Eric Dane, the actor who played the buff and charming Dr. Mark Sloan known as McSteamy on ABC’s medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” dictated five words by text each day to his 13-year-old daughter, Georgia, while a nurse held a phone to his mouth.
“Good morning, I love you,” he writes in “My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments,” which is being released on Tuesday.
Dane died in February at the age of 53 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., the neurodegenerative disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The book traces his acting career, which began in the early 1990s, with roles on the television shows “Saved by the Bell” and “The Wonder Years.” In the early 2000s, he had recurring television appearances as a doctor on “Gideon’s Crossing” and as a newspaper owner in “Charmed.”
His breakout role came in 2006 as Dr. Sloan, the head of plastic surgery, who sparked mischievous drama among co-workers at a fictional Seattle hospital where “Grey’s Anatomy” was set.
Dane also became known for playing a by-the-book Navy captain on TNT’s “The Last Ship” and the closeted father of a football player on HBO’s “Euphoria.”
After he revealed in 2025 that he had A.L.S., Dane leveraged his celebrity status to raise awareness about the disease.
“I wake up every morning, and I’m immediately reminded that this is real — this illness, this challenge, and that’s exactly why I’m writing this book,” he said in a news release. “If sharing this helps someone find meaning in their own days, then my story is worth telling.”
Here are some takeaways from the memoir.
He recalls when he learned he had A.L.S.
In November 2024, nine months after he began seeking answers from specialists about why he was losing the use of his right hand, a neurologist in San Francisco gave Dane grave news: He had A.L.S.
“I know what the letters mean,” Dane wrote. “I’ve prepared myself for at least that much.”
He added: “I know I’m facing a death sentence. My life has become a horror movie.”
He described calling his wife, Rebecca Gayheart, from the car.
“It’s what we feared,” he recalled. “I remember only feeling a violent impact, like getting the wind knocked out of me, and Rebecca wailing on the other end of the phone, and then I really lose it, and my sobs make my body shudder and I hear her words pouring out amid tears, ‘I’m here, we’ll fight this together, I’m not going anywhere.’”
A new member joins ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’
In December 2005, Dane received a script for a one-time appearance as Dr. McSteamy.
“I know this guy,” Dane wrote. “I know how to play him. I see the twinkle in his eye, his dry sense of humor, a ready smile, a wink.”
He was apprehensive because he had auditioned to play the show’s lead, Dr. Derek Shepherd, which went to Patrick Dempsey. But Gayheart persuaded Dane to audition anyway and he tested before the show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes.
“I feel comfortable, as if I belong here,” he wrote.
In early 2006, he shot three scenes in an episode titled “Yesterday.”
“Every moment I spend playing Dr. Mark Sloan, acting with the ‘Grey’s’ cast and interacting with the actors and crew off camera, is a complete joy,” he wrote. “I don’t know when I’ve had more fun or felt more fulfilled.”
After the episode was broadcast, his manager gave him some good news.
“I’m going to be a series regular,” Dane wrote. “I got the gig I wanted.”
He coped with drug addiction.
In his book, Dane details his struggles with drug addiction, particularly painkillers. At one point, Rhimes pulled him aside and told him that if he needed a break from the show, “I will take care of you,” he recalled her saying.
Although he was treated at rehabilitation centers five times while working on the series, other issues led to his departure.
“The reason comes down to money,” he wrote, adding: “Despite Mark Sloan’s popularity, I have become too expensive. I have become expendable.”
In the show’s ninth season in 2012, his character died from injuries related to a plane crash from the previous season.
Dane appeared in 139 episodes of the show.
He faced a rapid decline with A.L.S.
The disease robbed him of his mobility.
Dane recalled one afternoon in 2025 when he was snorkeling with his youngest daughter, Georgia, and her friend in Mexico.
He jumped into the water from a boat but his arms were limp and listless, he wrote.
He called out to his daughter, who rushed to him with her friend. They both dragged him back to the boat where he collapsed and wept.
“I don’t want my daughter to see me this way, but I can’t help it,” he wrote.
Then came the stark realization that he could no longer swim, which for him had been a lifelong favorite activity.
“This is the first in a series of losses I will face, and those losses will mount up,” he wrote.
Dane also realized that he had hugged his daughter Billie for the last time in 2025.
In what had become a yearly tradition after watching Billie perform in productions of “The Nutcracker,” Dane waited backstage for her but this year he was in a wheelchair.
“I can no longer walk,” he wrote. “I can’t move my arms or legs. My extremities have become useless. Pretend appendages. Props.”
After the performance, Billie emerged and found her father backstage.
“Dad,” Dane recalled her whispering as she threw her arms around him.
“This moment — my daughter holding me, my arms and hands useless, the two of us crying — feels incredibly beautiful,” he wrote.
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