Actor Patrick Muldoon suffered a fatal heart attack on April 19, 2026, at his Beverly Hills home, where he lived with his girlfriend Miriam Rothbart. He was 57.
Rothbart discovered Muldoon unconscious on the bathroom floor that morning after he had gone to shower following coffee together, his sister, Shana Muldoon-Zappa, told TMZ. Despite paramedics rushing to the scene and attempting revival, efforts to save him failed. His manager confirmed his death to Variety the following day, April 20.
Born September 27, 1968, in San Pedro, California, Muldoon attended the University of Southern California, where he played tight end for the Trojans football team and earned two Rose Bowl rings as a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He graduated in 1991. His professional acting career launched while still in college with a two-episode arc on “Who’s the Boss?” in 1990, playing Alyssa Milano’s boyfriend.
Shortly after graduation, Muldoon landed a memorable three-episode arc on “Saved by the Bell,” playing Jeff Hunter, the smooth-talking manager of the Max who stole Tiffani Thiessen’s beloved Kelly Kapowski away from Zack Morris.
His breakthrough came in 1992 when he originated the role of Austin Reed on “Days of Our Lives,” becoming a fan favorite alongside Christie Clark’s Carrie Brady. The NBC soap opera featured Muldoon through 1995, during which he won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Male Newcomer in 1994. He returned to play Austin Reed again from 2011 to 2012, though Austin Peck had taken over the character during the intervening years and continued portraying Austin through 2021 in a spinoff.
Muldoon’s primetime success included portraying the villainous Richard Hart across seasons three through five of “Melrose Place,” and during the 1990s, he became the only actor to hold an exclusive development deal with Spelling Entertainment. His television work also encompassed appearances in the crime drama “Silk Stalkings” and starring roles in numerous television films that became staples of Lifetime and Hallmark programming, including “A Boyfriend for Christmas” and “All About Christmas Eve.”
In director Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 science fiction spectacle “Starship Troopers,” Muldoon played Zander Barcalow, appearing alongside Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards and Neil Patrick Harris. Van Dien, who described Muldoon as one of his closest friends, said he was “deeply saddened, devastated and overwhelmed” by the loss. More recently, he worked alongside Bruce Willis in 2021’s “Deadlock.” His final completed film, “Dirty Hands,” a crime thriller reuniting him with Richards, was released on April 24 via Saban Films in limited theaters and on VOD platforms including Apple TV. A special premiere screening was held in New Jersey on April 21, just two days after his death.
Muldoon’s death sent shockwaves through Hollywood, where he had built a distinctive career spanning soap operas, science fiction blockbusters, independent film production and music over more than 30 years. Just three days before he died, the actor had celebrated a new milestone on Instagram, confirming that production had begun in Australia on “Kockroach,” a film directed by Matt Ross and starring Chris Hemsworth, Taron Egerton, Zazie Beetz and Alec Baldwin. Hemsworth had replaced Channing Tatum, who stepped away due to scheduling conflicts.
“So excited to be a part of this amazing project KOCKROACH,” Muldoon wrote in what would become his final social media post. He was serving as an executive producer on the film, adding to a portfolio through his Storyboard Productions that included “The Tribes of Palos Verdes,” “Arkansas,” “Marlowe,” “The Card Counter,” “The Dreadful” and “Riff Raff.”
As lead singer of the rock band The Sleeping Masses, Muldoon demonstrated yet another facet of his artistic talents. Their song “The Woman Is the Way” was featured in the 2009 film “Powder Blue” and on the reality series “The Hills.” He described himself on Instagram as an “actor, producer, musician, in the most Rock & Roll way possible.”
Actress Denise Richards, who co-starred with Muldoon in “Starship Troopers” and his recently released “Dirty Hands,” paid tribute on Instagram on April 21, calling him her best friend and saying the friendship and loyalty they shared over 36 years was “unconditional and rare.” “I am deeply heartbroken and devastated losing you,” Richards wrote. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without you here.”
Actress Alison Sweeney, who played Sami Brady opposite Muldoon’s Austin Reed on “Days of Our Lives,” called him “a rare kind of person — brilliantly talented, endlessly kind, and generous in spirit.” She added that when she first started at “Days,” “Muldoon made me feel at ease right away.”
Friends and colleagues remembered Muldoon, known to loved ones as “Bobo,” with tributes that painted a picture of an artist who brought the same warmth to his personal relationships as he did to his performances. Deadline reported that those close to him described Muldoon as “endlessly generous — with his poetry, his humor, and his unmistakable presence.”
For fans who followed his career from college football player to soap opera heartthrob to character actor, producer and musician, Muldoon’s death marks the end of a Hollywood journey that embodied versatility and perseverance.
Muldoon is survived by his partner, Miriam Rothbart; his parents, Deanna and Patrick Muldoon Sr.; his sister and brother-in-law, Shana and Ahmet Zappa; and their children, his niece Halo Zappa and nephew Arrow Zappa. In the days following his death, Muldoon-Zappa shared a video on Instagram of her brother visiting an art exhibition just one day before he died. “As always, he jokes… and yet profoundly brings all things into one moment,” she wrote, describing him as “the joke-ster, the artist, the football player, and the intensely spiritually connected, Jesuit educated, incredible being that is Patrick Muldoon.” She added: “I continue to speak of him in the present tense. Because his spirit is all around me. He just changed forms.”
