Grey’s Anatomy has paid tribute to Eric Dane and his character, Dr Mark Sloan, with an emotional montage set to the show’s unofficial theme tune, “Chasing Cars”.
Dane, who died last week aged 53, made his debut as the charming plastic surgeon in the second series of ABC’s medical drama and became a main cast member in the third.
Dr Sloan, nicknamed McSteamy, remained a fixture on the show until a plane crash at the end of season nine saw a number of the hospital’s staff members injured. After initially appearing to survive the crash, Dr Sloan died in the series nine premiere.
Dane still made a handful of later appearances in Grey’s, popping up in flashbacks and hallucinations.
The 65-second tribute montage shows Dane’s character through the years, from being known as a ladies’ man to becoming a father.
The video – set to Tommee Profitt & Fleuries’ cover of the Snow Patrol tearjerker “Cashing Cars” – ends with Dr Sloan’s advice from his deathbed.
“If you love someone, you tell ’em, even if you’re scared that it’s not the right thing,” he says. “Even if you’re scared that it will burn your life to the ground, you say it. You say it loud.”
Dane’s Grey’s Anatomy cast mates were among the many industry figures who paid tribute to the actor after his death, which came less than a year after he publicly shared that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive motor neurone disease.
Patrick Dempsey, who played Dr Derek Shepherd - the McDreamy to Dr Sloan’s McSteamy - described him as the “funniest man”.
“It's hard to put into words,” he said during an appearance on Chris Evans’ Virgin Radio show. “I feel really so sad for his children.”
"I was corresponding with him, we were texting, so I spoke to him about a week ago, and some friends of ours went in to see him and he was really starting to lose his ability to speak.
"He was bedridden, and it was very hard for him to swallow, so the quality of his life was deteriorating so rapidly.
"He was the funniest man - he was such a joy to work with - and I want to just remember him in that spirit, because any time he was on set, he brought so much fun to it. He had a great sense of humour."
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