The Marvel Character You Forgot Grey's Anatomy Actor Eric Dane Played

The list of actors who have died in 2026 so far seems to grow by the day — and on February 19, Eric Dane sadly joined that list. The actor revealed his ALS diagnosis last spring, and had been open about the struggles of living with the disease, which took his life at the age of 53. Dane is of course best known for playing Dr. Mark "McSteamy" Sloan on "Grey's Anatomy," and he had recently delivered a standout performance in the HBO drama "Euphoria." But his filmography is a long and varied one, and it even includes playing a legacy Marvel character in 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand."

Given that the third "X-Men" film was notoriously overstuffed with characters, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that both Dane and the character he played — Jamie "Multiple Man" Madrox — were even in the movie. But there were six duplicates of Multiple Man in his first scene and at least three in his second, so Dane certainly had a sizable presence, despite his limited screen time. 

After "X-Men: The Last Stand," the Fox X-Men series took a long break — with the exception of the solo Wolverine movies. So, other than Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, the majority of the X-Men characters from that franchise weren't seen again until "Days of Future Past" in 2014. Unfortunately, Multiple Man wasn't one of them. 

But when the "Deadpool" movies started to dust off some of those Fox X-Men characters — the cameo-filled "Deadpool & Wolverine" in particular — anyone who ever appeared in an X-Men movie (or any Marvel movie under the 20th Century umbrella) suddenly saw a way back in. And that included Eric Dane, who said as much when talking to Bleeding Cool in August 2024 about his new movie "One Fast Move." Dane told the outlet, "I always thought Multiple Man would make a great standalone movie and think Marvel should make that. I wouldn't mind returning and starring in that." Unfortunately, he would not get that chance.