Why Eric Dane's Dr. Mark Sloan Left Grey's Anatomy

We've been over this multiple times before, but "Grey's Anatomy" has been on TV since 2005, so people do leave the show pretty regularly. Unfortunately, some of those characters are killed off somewhat unceremoniously. Giacomo Gianniotti's character, Dr. Andrew DeLuca, was stabbed while trying to apprehend a criminal, T.R. Knight's Dr. George O'Malley got hit and dragged by a bus, and Patrick Dempsey's Dr. Derek Shepherd sustained massive injuries in a car accident ... and that's not even a complete list. So what happened with Dr. Mark Sloan, the seriously handsome and appropriately confident plastic surgeon dubbed "McSteamy" played by Eric Dane?

I'll get into Mark's tragic death shortly, but before that, Dane himself has spoken pretty candidly about his departure from the series. As "Grey's Anatomy" hit a huge popularity spike around its eighth season, Dane says that his paycheck was simply too high for ABC (in his opinion) while he spoke to Dax Shepard on "Armchair Podcast." Dane also opened up about his addictions to drugs and alcohol with Shepard, another public figure who's been very honest about his recovery journey.

"I think I was let go," Dane said, mentioning his addiction before clarifying that it wasn't the reason for his dismissal (via The Hollywood Reporter). "They didn't let me go because of that, although it definitely didn't help. I was starting to become, as most of these actors who have spent significant time on a show, you start to become very expensive for the network. And the network knows that the show is going to do what it's going to do, irrespective of who they keep on it. As long as they have their Grey, they're fine." Dane was, of course, referring to Ellen Pompeo's titular Meredith Grey, and even she left the series as a regular in season 19.

"I wasn't the same guy they had hired," Dane continued, speaking highly of the show's creator, Shonda Rhimes, and her unwavering support. "So I had understood when I was let go. And Shonda [Rhimes] was really great. She protected us fiercely. She protected us publicly. She protected us privately. ... But I was probably fired. It wasn't ceremoniously like, 'You're fired,' it was just like, 'You're not coming back.'"

"If you take the whole eight years on Grey's Anatomy, I was f**ked up longer than I was sober," Dane admitted, saying that he thinks his addiction issues intensified because of the show's massive popularity. "And that's when things started going sideways for me. It was overwhelming, and I think I just wanted to pretend that it wasn't and that I was comfortable with it. Act like you've been there, but you haven't been there." So who exactly was Mark on "Grey's Anatomy," and how does he die?

When we first meet Dr. Mark Sloan in season 2 of "Grey's Anatomy," his arrival is a total surprise to Derek Shepherd, Meredith Grey, and Derek's soon-to-be ex-wife Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh), and there's a good reason for that: Addison and Mark's affair torpedoed her marriage to Derek, which is why he flees New York for Seattle and meets Meredith in the first place. Mark eventually becomes an attending at the hospital then called Seattle Grace in season 3, and I'm not exaggerating when I say he became a genuinely indispensable part of the cast. He and Derek eventually reconcile — especially after Addison "moves to Los Angeles" for her spin-off, "Private Practice," at the end of season 3 — and Mark would be great thanks to Eric Dane's sense of comedic timing alone, but he's also part of two of the show's most important and sweet relationships.

Romantically, Mark has an on-again, off-again relationship with Meredith's younger half-sister Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), and despite the near-constant hurdles they face — their worst breakup is over the fact that Mark's estranged daughter shows up in Seattle and she's pregnant, potentially forcing a freaked-out Lexie to be a stepmother of sorts in her 20s — it's beyond clear that the two are meant to be together. Mark's other bond isn't romantic, but just a really fun dynamic — and that's with Sara Ramirez's orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Callie Torres, a bisexual woman who is Mark's, so to speak, "best friend with benefits." While Callie and her future wife, Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw), are experiencing their own breakup, a fling between Mark and Callie results in Callie getting pregnant, and when their daughter Sofia is born, Arizona, Mark, and Callie all happily parent her.

So what happens? At the end of season 8, a bunch of doctors — including Mark and Lexie — board a small plane that crashes en route to a surgery in Boise, and tragically, Lexie dies amidst the wreckage (holding Mark's hand). Mark seems fine but has a ton of internal injuries, and though he manages to survive the trip back to Seattle, his injuries are simply too much. After experiencing a "surge" of energy that seems too good to be true, Mark flatlines and, after 30 days of no brain activity, Derek and Callie make the decision to turn off his life support, following Mark's own end-of-life directive. Ultimately, the hospital is renamed Grey Sloan Memorial to honor him and Lexie. (Honestly, his death is pretty stupid, but I digress.)

Along with some other dead "Grey's Anatomy" characters, including Derek Shepherd and George O'Malley, Mark does return during the now-infamous storyline in season 17 of "Grey's Anatomy" to make an appearance on what fans call the "coma beach." The aforementioned coma beach only exists because the show makes the (honestly baffling) decision to give Meredith a severe enough case of COVID-19 that she's stuck in a coma and, uh, sees dead people. Anyway, Mark and Lexie visit the beach and tell Meredith she has a lot to live for and encourage her to keep fighting, and according to Eric Dane, the experience was great.

Speaking to Deadline after the episode "Breathe" aired, Dane said then-showrunner Krista Vernoff reached out and asked him to play Mark Sloan again, and he said yes right away. "I mean, if you're ever going to bring Mark Sloan back, I guess with Meredith in a coma, it's a good way for her to see him," Dane laughed. "So, it wasn't a tough sell, and it made sense." Not only that, but Dane said that it was a delight to see so many former colleagues and friends again. "It was like I'd never left," he shared. "It was a great day at the beach. It was great to see some of the familiar faces and same crew members, and we didn't skip a beat. I love those people. I spent a significant portion of my life with those people; I'd do just about anything for them."

Dane went on to play Cal Jacobs, father of Jacob Elordi's Nate Jacobs, on HBO's controversial teen series "Euphoria," but in April of 2025, he revealed something genuinely shocking: he was diagnosed with ALS, a degenerative nerve disorder that currently has no cure. In conversation with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, Dane shared, "I feel like maybe a couple, few more months, and I won't have my left hand [functioning] either." Unsurprisingly, he called the experience "sobering."

"At the end of the day, just, all I want to do is spend time with my family and work a little bit if I can," Dane continued before sharing a hopeful message: "I don't think this is the end of my story. I just don't feel like, in my heart, I don't feel like this is the end of me." You can watch Dane as Mark Sloan on "Grey's Anatomy" on Hulu and Netflix now, and I actually, genuinely recommend that you do so.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).