Eric Dane Spent His Last Year Fighting for $1 Billion in ALS Research Funding. His Documentary Premieres May 18

Dane publicly revealed his ALS diagnosis in April 2025. He died February 19, 2026 at 53.

The average ALS patient lives 3 to 5 years. He had less than 1.

The disease moved fast. He thought the weakness in his right hand was fatigue. Within months, he had lost the use of his arms and needed a wheelchair.

In September 2025, about 5 months before his death, he went to Capitol Hill with I AM ALS, the advocacy group founded by Brian Wallach, who was diagnosed at 37. Dane sat down with Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and told her the ACT for ALS bill “needs to get to the floor for reauthorization, and then it needs to get fully funded.” With Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, he talked about his family in Anchorage and the 72-pound salmon he caught when he was 12. “It was bigger than I was.”

He spent his last year on a campaign called Push for Progress, fighting for $1 billion in federal ALS research funding over 3 years and faster access to investigational therapies. His wife Rebecca Gayheart was with him through it. The documentary follows that work and premieres May 18 through I AM ALS.

“Keep going” is what the team is doing.