How 20 seconds of shirtless screen time changed Eric Dane's career and gave the world the gift of McSteamy
How 20 seconds of shirtless screen time changed Eric Dane's career and gave the world the gift of McSteamy
Neia BalaoMon, February 23, 2026 at 8:01 PM UTC
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Hunky bad boys may come and go, but Dr. Mark Sloan is forever.
In 2006, Eric Dane, who died last week of complications from ALS, made his debut on Grey’s Anatomy. The network television hit, fresh off its first season, had already injected much-needed life into the overly saturated medical genre, with a tumultuous, season-spanning will-they-or-won’t-they workplace romance and a roster of interns, residents and attendees hooking up in on-call rooms while juggling all sorts of medical cases — few mundane, most anxiety-inducing. Then, one day, a smooth-talking plastic surgeon with perfect salt-and-pepper hair sauntered in, giving a master class in flirting and birthing the moniker “McSteamy” into the worldwide lexicon.
Dane, who played Dr. Mark Sloan, appeared in just one episode in Season 2, as Dr. Derek Shepherd’s (Patrick Dempsey) former best friend, before returning early in the show’s third season.
Patrick Dempsey and Dane. (Eric McCandless/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Only, Mark wasn’t supposed to come back, at least not initially. Dane’s character was meant to be a momentary antagonist as Derek navigated Addison’s (Kate Walsh) betrayal. I mean, he was literally just supposed to stir up some drama and then vanish from the halls of Seattle Grace, never to be seen again. But plans quickly changed after Grey’s Anatomy’screator, Shonda Rhimes, saw how positively audiences had taken to him. Alas, Mark Sloan required a proper reintroduction — and Rhimes chose the most fitting way to do it.
“When Mark Sloan first appeared on Grey’s Anatomy in season 2, the original idea was to have him do one episode,” Rhimes wrote in an essay penned for Entertainment Weekly in 2012. “But none of us planned on what would happen once we cast Eric Dane.”
Allow me to reintroduce you…
In the Season 3 episode “I Am a Tree,” Derek shows up at Addison’s hotel room unannounced. He asks if they can talk, which is a pretty big deal considering how infuriatingly uncommunicative he’s been with her. (I find his behavior to be very eye-roll-worthy leading up to this conversation. We did not need to string her along! I loathe his indecision!)
Derek and Addison end up mutually agreeing to end their marriage (this is good, if you ship Derek with Meredith), and all seems cordial — that is, until Mark waltzes out of Addison’s really steamy bathroom in literally the teeniest towel ever. Mark is shirtless and freshly showered, Addison is in a robe and freshly showered, the bed is unmade and the champagne hasbeen flowing… and Derek immediately pieces it all together: His estranged wife and ex-best friend hooked up... again. Oops!
“Well, this is awkward,” Mark says, knowing full well he’s just interrupted a moment.
Listen. I am not alone in loving Dane’s Grey’s Anatomy reintroduction, OK? I mean, Rhimes said that Mark “wears a towel better than anyone can wear a towel in the history of wearing towels on television.” Even Dempsey thought that whole Derek-Addison-Mark moment was hilarious.
“[Dane] came into the show. He wasn’t part of the original cast, and he wasn’t sure how I’d take to it,” Dempsey told the U.K.’s Magic Radio last Friday. “He comes out and his first scene, he’s half-dressed looking like this Adonis. And, you know, we just had a great time and we laughed about it.”
Dane also previously said of filming the now iconic scene, “It was an entrance. It was definitely an entrance. It was a brand new towel, and an unwashed towel has a hard time staying together. So every time I put it together and let my hands go, it was almost like throwing caution to the wind.”
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He revisited the moment again in 2025, this time while speaking with Diane Sawyer about his ALS diagnosis on Good Morning America.
“In the moment, it was just another scene to me,” he said. “I just remember walking out of a bathroom with a very nice [effects] gentleman blowing smoke [to create steam] toward me.”
Dane and Kate Walsh. (Vivian Zink/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
The 20-second shirtless scene functions on so many levels. Of course, there’s the very obvious surface-level, which is that, yes, Mark Sloan is obviously hot — and this scene is proof of that. I mean, duh, with his across-the-board good looks, bad boy charm and dangerous-but-sexy aura, it’s no wonder Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) dubbed him “McSteamy.” It’s also worth noting that Rhimes described him as “the kind of guy who women hate falling for but just can’t resist. Oh, and he can even suture his own cut face.” Yep. I could see it.
But then there’s the deeper, more satisfying level on which the 20-second shirtless scene works: It paints a specific picture. It tells us what we’re supposed to think — and how we’re supposed to feel about this man we barely know. We know he’s handsome, insanely jacked and too charismatic for his own good. We know he homewrecked his best friend’s marriage. Suddenly, in a matter of seconds, it feels as though we have this impenetrable read on who Mark Sloan is — except we don’t. We actually haven’t got the slightest clue.
Dane appeared on his fair share of television shows before joining the zeitgeisty medical drama. He made his onscreen debut in a 1991 episode of Saved by the Bell, before landing roles on The Wonder Years, Married … With Children, and Roseanne. In addition to portraying Dr. Wyatt Cooper on Gideon’s Crossing, Dane joined Charmed in 2003 as Jason Dean, the boss and boyfriend of Alyssa Milano’s character. Post-Grey’s, Dane starred on TNT’s The Last Ship, before playing Cal Jacobs, the disturbed, suburban father of Jacob Elordi’s character, on HBO’s Euphoria.
McSteamy was Dane’s career-defining role. That’s not a bad thing.
See, Mark Sloan is one of the good guys. His shirtless reintroduction in Season 3 sets up a moving, six-season character arc. We’re initially made to believe that he’s ill-intentioned, self-serving and incapable of change — that he is worthy of lust, not love. But this vapid “other man” status doesn’t stick. Not forever, anyway.
Dane and Chyler Leigh. (Adam Taylor/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
As seasons progress and Mark’s presence on Grey’s is cemented, we’re invited to see more tender sides to him: He mends his relationship with Derek; he steps up as a dad after learning he has a teenage daughter; he becomes a doting, hands-on father to his baby girl Sofia; and he falls deeply in love with Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh).
Even in his final moments, before succumbing to injuries sustained in a plane crash, Mark speaks boldly and unapologetically about love — and how wildly you should submit to it: “If you love someone, you tell them. Even if you’re scared that it’s not the right thing. Even if you’re scared that it’ll cause problems. Even if you’re scared that it will burn your life to the ground. You say it, and you say it loud.”
It’s impossible for Grey’s Anatomy fans to ever forget Mark’s shirtless scene — and with reason. I wouldn’t want it any other way, truthfully. It’s a distant but distinct memory — a charming catalyst for the very real, actually deep character growth that would come.
Perhaps Rhimes said it best: “Dr. Mark Sloan left an indelible mark on the series and on audiences around the world.” I couldn’t agree more. A shirtless saunter may have piqued my interest, but it was Mark’s show of heart that kept me seated. McSteamy forever.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
