Grey's Anatomy

Background:

“A lot of actors bring themselves to a role whether they're conscious of it or not. Even if an actor 'loses' himself in a role, it's still very 'him.' Anthony Hopkins loses himself the way Anthony Hopkins would lose himself. You can't totally detach yourself or there's no authenticity to it.” Eric Dane

American actor Eric Dane, who caught the acting bug while in high school, began his career on television with guest roles on various programs like NBC's “Saved by the Bell,” ABC's “The Wonder Years” and “Roseanne” and Fox's “Married with Children” before receiving a recurring role on the ABC critically acclaimed series “Gideon's Crossing” (2001). It was followed by a regular gig on the short-lived series “The American Embassy” (Fox, 2002) and recurring roles on “Charmed” (2003-2004) and “Las Vegas” (2004). However, the San Francisco native is most popular to TV viewers for portraying Dr. Mark “McSteamy” Sloan on ABC's award-winning medical series “Grey's Anatomy” (2006-present), from which he jointly won a 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award. On the film circuit, Dane has collected several credits since making his debut in 1999's “The Basket.” Among them are “Sol Goode” (2001), “X-Men 3: The Last Stand” (2006), “Open Water 2” (2006) and “Marley & Me” (2008).

“The person I am is who I am. My life is my career, my career is my life. Even my private life, if it and my career bleed together so be it.” Eric Dane

Dane has been married to actress and model Rebecca Gayhear since 2004. Previously, he dated actress Lara Flynn Boyle (2001), whom he met while filming crossover episodes of their shows “Gideon's Crossing” and “The Practice.”

One of People Magazine's “Sexiest Men Alive” (2007), Dane is a best friend of actor Balthazar Getty and the godfather of Getty's son, Cassius. Dane and his wife helped introduce Charlie Sheen to his present wife, Brooke Mueller, whom Sheen married in May 30, 2008.

Athlete

Childhood and Family:

Eric William Dane was born on November 9, 1972, in San Francisco, California. He is the eldest of two brothers. His father is an interior designer and architect based in San Francisco and his mother is a housewife. Eric was educated at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California, and San Mateo High. He was a good athlete in high school. He stated, “I was really into athletics in high school. I started by playing Joe Keller in ‘All My Sons.’ I ended up cutting a water polo season short doing the play and realized instantaneously that this was all I'd wanted to do.”

On October 29, 2004, Eric tied the knot with actress Rebecca Gayheart (born on August 12, 1971). They married in Vegas with their cab driver standing in as best man.

“(Life with her) has been wonderful. On a whim, we ran to Vegas and got married. We'd been together nine months and we just knew.” Eric Dane

Marley & Me

Career:

Eric Dane became interested in acting while he was in high school and subsequently moved to Los Angeles to pursue his ambition. His television debut was in a 1991 episode of NBC's “Saved by the Bell,” where he had an unaccredited role. On relocating to Hollywood, he recalled, “I was fairly active socially. I felt at the time that that was more interesting than being an actor.”

Dane continued to have episodic roles in a string of shows like the Lorenzo Lamas vehicle “Renegade” (1992), “The Wonder Years” (1993), “Married with Children” (1995), “Silk Stalkings” (1996) and “Roseanne” (1996). He made his TV movie debut in the biopic “Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story” (1995), which was based on the life of Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer (played by Glenn Close), whose admission about her sexual orientation led to her being discharged from the Washington National Guard. In addition to Dane, who was cast as Matt, the Peabody Award winner also featured supporting performances from Judy Davis, Jan Rubes, Wendy Makkena and Susan Barnes. He next appeared as Nick in the NBC original movie “Seduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt Story” (1996), which was directed by John Patterson, written by Carmen Culver, and starred Ann-Margret, Peter Coyote and Leslie Hope. He did not land his first feature film role until three years later when he was cast as Tom Emery in the WWI drama “The Basket,” for which he was reunited with “Seduced by Madness” costar Peter Coyote. Directed by Rich Cowan, the film was shown in such festivals as the 1999 Seattle International Film Festival, the 1999 Breckenridge Film Festival (won the Best of the Fest Award for Family/Children) and the 1999 Heartland Film Festival (won the Crystal Heart Award) before being released theatrically in May 2000.

Following an appearance in the comedy series “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane” (2000), Dane won the recurring role of Dr. Wyatt Cooper on the ABC medical series “Gideon's Crossing” in 2001, which starred Andre Braugher, Rubén Blades, Rhona Mitra, Hamish Linklater and Ravi Kapoor. The show earned rave reviews, but was canceled after one season. Also that year, Dane could be seen in the movie “Sol Goode,” a comedy written and directed by Danny Comden, and the unsold TV series pilot “Ball & Chain,” with Kayla Blake, Dan Cortese, Myndy Crist and Sasha Alexander.

Dane returned to TV series in 2002 when he landed the regular role of Rob Goodwin on the Fox drama “The American Embassy.” Produced by Jersey Television, a company owned by actor/director/producer Danny DeVito, the series was axed after four episodes. The undiscouraged actor then took the recurring role of Jason Dean, the boyfriend of Phoebe Halliwell, on the fifth and six seasons of The WB's “Charmed” (2003-2004) and portrayed a very different character on the TV film remake of “Helter Skelter” (2004), which was based on the true story of the Manson murders. In the film, he played Manson Family member Charles “Tex” Watson, who took part in the hideous Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969. Still in 2004, he also portrayed Leo Broder on two episodes of the Gary Scott Thompson-created “Las Vegas” named “The Count of Montecito” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”

In the following years, Dane rejoined Balthazar Getty for John Gulager's action film “Feast,” which won the Jury Prize for Best Director at the 2005 Austin Fantastic Fest, supported Emmanuelle Vaugier and Richard Roundtree in the Sci-Fi Channel original movie “Painkiller Jane” (2005), based on the comic book character of the same name, and enjoyed blockbuster success with “X-Men 3: The Last Stand” (2006), where he played the evil mutant Multiple Man. He also portrayed the significant role of Dan in the thriller “Open Water 2,” opposite Susan May Pratt, Richard Speight Jr., Niklaus Lange, Ali Hillis and Cameron Richardson, and starred in the TV film “Wedding Wars” (both 2006).

It was also in 2006 that Dane's career gained an important boost when he joined the cast of the prime-time medical drama “Grey's Anatomy,” which debuted on ABC as a mid-season replacement for “Boston Legal” the year before. Dane made his debut as plastic surgeon Mark Sloan in the season 2 episode “Yesterday,” which aired on February 19, 2006, and by season 3, he was a regular cast member. In 2007, he shared a Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. “Grey’s Anatomy” is currently airing successfully.

Meanwhile, in 2008, Dane also resumed his film career by playing the supporting role of Sebastian in the Owen Wilson/Jennifer Aniston comedy “Marley & Me,” for director David Frankel. Scripted by Scott Frank and Don Roos and based on the John Grogan memoir of the same name, the film, which was released on December 25, created a record in the U.S. for being the largest Christmas Day box office movie ever to gross over $14 million. The next year, he reprised his popular TV role of Dr. Mark Sloan on an episode of “Private Practice” called “Ex-Life.”

Awards:

• Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, “Grey's Anatomy,” 2007