“Don’t wait until you get the worst possible news before you decide to become your best possible person. Or friend. Or husband. Or dad. Start today. Start now. Trust me.” — Eric Dane
Eric Dane wrote those words after learning he had ALS, addressed to anyone who might still have time to become a better father, husband and friend. His memoir, “My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments,” was published on November 3, 2026, after his death on February 19 at 53 from ALS-related respiratory failure.
The “Grey’s Anatomy” actor traced his first clear symptom to January 7, 2024, when he couldn’t grip chopsticks while eating lunch with his children. Months of specialist appointments followed.
Doctors initially diagnosed multifocal motor neuropathy, a treatable condition, before he received an ALS diagnosis in late 2024. He announced it publicly in April 2025.
As the disease progressed, Dane lost the use of his right arm and eventually couldn’t swim, walk without help or feed himself. He completed the memoir during the final months of his life, writing directly to his daughters, Billie and Georgia, in sections titled “Today.”
The book also recounts his addiction, a relapse involving painkillers after a neck injury during his “Grey’s Anatomy” years, and multiple stays in rehab. Alongside memories of Hollywood and fatherhood, he left his daughters advice about the patterns he hoped they’d avoid and imagined their lives at 24 and 26.
Dane married their mother, Rebecca Gayheart, in 2004. They separated in 2018, but their divorce was never finalized, and they remained close after his diagnosis. Gayheart has described the memoir as a way for their daughters to know their father as a full person.
Dane also wrote: “When you face challenges, health or otherwise, fight. Never give up. No matter what happens to you, fight until your last breath.”