‘Grey’s Anatomy’ pays tribute to Eric Dane with McSteamy’s best moments

Former “Grey’s Anatomy” star Eric Dane died a week ago on Feb. 19 — and on Thursday’s episode of the long-running ABC drama, the show paid tribute to him and his character, Dr. Mark Sloan, in a video at the end of the episode. The 65-second McSteamy montage was set to Tommee Profitt & Fleuries’ cover of Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars,” a song that became iconic after it was used in the Season 2 finale when Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) died and Izzie (Katherine Heigl) wouldn’t let him go. Various versions of “Chasing Cars” have been used on “Grey’s” and since then in the promos, with great success, always to underline an emotional event. (The full video is below.)

Dane joined the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” in season 2, playing a plastic surgeon and ladies’ man. Mark, nicknamed McSteamy, was the best friend of Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) whose affair with Derek’s wife Addison (Kate Walsh) had broken up that marriage. Mark Sloan proved to be a popular character, and Dane became a regular in season 3. He died during season 8, after some of the hospital’s doctors had a plane crash. Nevertheless, Dane appeared on the show a few more times, including with Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) in season 19, when she was in a hallucinatory state from COVID, and characters who had died on the show visited her.

Dane was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 2025; Despite his terminal illness, he played an ALS patient in NBC’s “Brilliant Minds” in the fall and completed filming Season 3 of “Euphoria,” in which he played Cal Jacobs. “Euphoria” premieres April 12 on HBO.

Dane’s death prompted an outpouring of grief from his colleagues at “Grey’s Anatomy,” from creator Shonda Rhimes to Heigl to Walsh and many more, all of whom wrote loving tributes to him on social media.

The video, which plays “Chasing Cars,” begins with Mark’s first appearances, when he called himself and Meredith the “dirty mistresses” for becoming a father. Mark’s advice to Jackson (Jesse Williams) from his deathbed plays out through a montage: “If you love someone, tell them, even if you’re afraid it’s not the right thing. Even if you’re afraid it will burn your life to the ground, you say it. You say it loud.”

Watch “Grey’s Anatomy”’s tribute to Eric Dane below.