There are times in movies and shows when life imitates art. This is often with pregnancies or grief, but in Brilliant Minds, it’s going to be a very real diagnosis.
Eric Dane is going to guest star in an episode of the heartfelt medical drama. Dane is best-known for his role of Dr. Mark “McSteamy” Sloan in Grey’s Anatomy, but he’s made headlines for a very personal reason in recent months.
Eric Dane will play a character with his own health problems in Brilliant Minds
Earlier in 2025, Dane shared that he is suffering from ALS. Deadline shared the news along with some first-look photos from the episode. There is no confirmed date for the episode’s release just yet, but we do have some details, including that it will be the ninth episode of the season.
Dane’s character is a firefighter, who is also suffering from ALS. However, he’s struggling with how to tell his family about the condition. It sounds like this is going to work out a little differently to the Brilliant Minds season 2 premiere, where the patient was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, but had no idea that he had it, because his father was keeping it from him.
In Dane’s episode, it sounds like he’ll get the diagnosis or he’ll know about potentially having it, and then he’ll have to deal with what this means for the rest of his life. Like Parkinson’s, there is no cure for ALS.
ALS, which stands for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a nervous system disease that was once referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The exact cause isn’t known, but it affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. While there is treatment to slow down the progression, there is no cure or way to reverse the condition, and it progressively gets worse.
Eric Dane is open about his own ALS diagnosis
Since sharing the new about his condition, Dane has been open about what it means for him and his family. It’s sure to have inspired the role for Brilliant Minds, considering the effect that ALS has on others around a patient.
Dane has spoken about how hard and heartbreaking it is for his wife and two daughters. His wife, Rebecca Gayhart, has also opened up about how difficult it is, and how they’ve had professional therapists in to help handle the emotional toll that it’s all taken on the family.
Brilliant Minds season 2, episode 9 is sure to be a heavy episode. We’ll be sure to share the date of the episode as soon as we know it.
Brilliant Minds airs on Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.