Eric Dane had high hopes that his two daughters, Billie and Georgia, would remember the big and small moments following his death.
“I think they would lead with I’m a reactive person. ‘My dad was a reactive person,’ [which is] not necessary a negative connotation,” Dane said in a Famous Last Words interview on Netflix, which premiered hours after his death at 53. “Some of their core memories involve me reacting to something. You know, traffic is always a good impetus for that.”
Dane shared Billie, 15, and Georgia, 14, with Rebecca Gayheart. The Grey’s Anatomy actor died on Thursday, February 19, following a battle with ALS.
“I think that they would say I was pretty tough. Resilient,” he told Brad Falchuk in the posthumous Netflix interview. “They would say I was loving and I was really endearing and compassionate and empathetic and trustworthy. I’m a good dad.”
He continued, “We did some really great traveling. We went to Europe one year, and there was a time where we were ripping through the French countryside with the kids in the back of this crazy little car we rented.”
Dane recalled saying “everything with a French accent” during the family’s vacation, which had Gayheart, 54, and the girls in hysterics.
“For some reason, for that 15 minutes, my French accent was spot on,” he quipped. “I have no idea where that came from [but everyone was laughing]. That’s the best thing. It’s my favorite thing to do — and laugh myself too.”
Dane further stressed that parenthood was his No. 1 priority in life.
“I think showing up is the No. 1 quality,” he said. “I haven’t been perfect with that, but I’ve always been there when it mattered. Well, their mother and I are no longer together. We’re still best friends, but we’re not together.”
Dane and Gayheart were married from 2004 to 2018 before the Jawbreakers actress filed for divorce. Gayheart ultimately withdrew her petition in 2025 amid Dane’s ALS diagnosis.
“Just by virtue of the distance and us living in separate homes, there’s a lot of time lost there,” Dane acknowledged in Famous Last Words. “I made sure that I can be there as much as possible — and certainly when it counts. I’ve shown up to all of Billie’s ballet recitals. I’ve been to many Nutcrackers, and I’ll tell you, there’s a couple pieces in there that are beautiful but Jesus, that thing drones on, man. It’s three hours, but I’ve been to all of them.”
Dane also attended all of daughter Georgia’s beach volleyball games.
“I’m present in their lives, whether I’m in front of them or 2,000 miles away,” he said, noting his fondness for their mother. “Well, we still love each other deeply. I just think we don’t want to live with each other, but there’s a lot of love there. I will never, by the time anybody sees this, have fallen in love with another woman as deeply as I fell in love with Rebecca. She’s the mother of my children.”
