Eric Dane made his much-anticipated cameo appearance in Brilliant Minds on Monday, starring as a firefighter with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Dane, 53, revealed in April that he had been diagnosed with ALS and has since spoken publicly about the symptoms he’s experiencing.
Best known for his role as Dr. Mark Sloan in Grey’s Anatomy, it was announced last month that Dane would appear on the NBC medical drama Brilliant Minds.
He played Matthew Ramati, a firefighter struggling to share his ALS diagnosis with his family. The episode shone a light on some of the symptoms of the neurodegenerative disease, with Dane’s character losing the use of his hands and struggling to breathe hard into a tube.
“Fine, I’ll quit smoking cigars,” his character jokes.
During the episode, Dr. Oliver Wolf, the series lead played by Zachary Quinto, convinces Matthew to spend Thanksgiving with his family, which the firefighter was seeking to avoid.
The episode ends with a heartwarming moment as Matthew is surprised by a firetruck filled with his colleagues and people he’s saved over the years.
On X, fans of the show shared their emotional reactions to Dane’s cameo amid his diagnosis.
“Eric Dane bringing his ALS story to #BrilliantMinds is as heroic as Tatiana Schlossberg’s essay,” wrote one viewer, referencing John F Kennedy’s granddaughter’s recent piece in The New Yorker revealing her diagnosis with acute myeloid leukemia.
“I cried in every scene Eric was in as that character,” another admitted.
“Such a beautiful episode, such a beautiful scene! I absolutely loved their dynamic together,” added a third alongside a clip of Dane and Mädchen Amick, who played his ex-wife in the episode.
In real life, Dane married fellow actor Rebecca Gayheart in 2004. She filed for divorce in 2018 but dismissed the filing in March this year. They share two daughters: 15-year-old Billie and 13-year-old Georgia.
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Shortly after he announced his diagnosis, Dane spoke about wanting to continue acting as he battles the disease.
“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 told Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America in June. “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.”
During his interview with Sawyer, Dane also revealed that his right side was no longer functioning and that he expected to lose control of his left hand.
Still, he went on to film season three of Euphoria, which he appears in as Cal Jacobs, the father of Jacob Elordi’s character Nate Jacobs. The new season is set to air in 2026.
However, he was forced to skip out on the Grey’s Anatomy reunion at this year’s Emmy Awards following a fall that left him hospitalized. He said the “nasty disease” caused him to lose his balance in the kitchen.
“I missed an opportunity I was really looking forward to,” he told the Washington Post at the time. “It would have been great to see Jesse and get reunited with some of my peers, and to be able to present in front of my colleagues, I thought, would have been a special moment. So I was really upset about it, but you know, there was nothing I could do about it.”
