Patrick Muldoon, “Days of Our Lives" and "Melrose Place” Star, Dead at 57
Patrick Muldoon died suddenly on Sunday morning. He was 57.
His girlfriend found him unconscious at his Beverly Hills home after what his sister confirmed was a sudden cardiac event — a heart attack with no warning. By the time anyone knew something was wrong, he was already gone.
His manager had confirmed the death to Variety earlier that day without additional details. Now we know how it happened.
Who He Was
Muldoon grew up in Los Angeles, played football at USC well enough to earn two Rose Bowl rings, and then went into modeling — Calvin Klein campaigns through the Wilhelmina agency before the acting bug took over. He showed up on Who's the Boss in the mid-80s, then on Saved by the Bell as the manager of The Max who briefly dated Kelly Kapowski. Small parts that most people have completely forgotten about but that were part of a career that was just getting started.
By 1992 he was on Days of Our Lives as Austin Reed — an aspiring boxer caught in one of daytime drama's messier storylines. His father gets murdered. Sami Brady drugs and assaults him. Proposals, pregnancies, all of it. He came back to the role in 2011 and 2012 after Austin Peck had held it down for years in between.
The Melrose Place Run
The role people actually remember is Richard Hart on Melrose Place starting in 1995. On paper, Richard is a designer. In practice he's one of the nastier characters the show produced — cheating on his wife, pursuing Jane Andrews, and by Season 4 physically and sexually assaulting her. Jane and her sister try to kill him. Everyone thinks he's dead. He's not. He finally dies in a police shootout in Season 5.
Playing that kind of villain convincingly takes something. Muldoon had it. The storyline was dark even by Melrose Place standards and he didn't flinch from any of it.
The Second Act
After the soap years he landed a major studio film — Starship Troopers in 1997 alongside Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards. Then smaller roles for a while before he quietly built out a producing career through his company Storyboard Productions. The Card Counter. Marlow. The 2024 action-comedy Riff Raff with Jennifer Coolidge, Bill Murray, Pete Davidson, and Gabrielle Union.
He was set to coproduce Kockroach — a crime thriller with Chris Hemsworth, Zazie Beetz, Channing Tatum, and Alec Baldwin attached. That project moves forward without him now.
A few films will be released posthumously including the Denise Richards thriller Dirty Hands.
57 Is Too Young
Found by his girlfriend on a Sunday morning after sharing a cup of coffee together. No warning. A career with genuine momentum, projects lined up, a second chapter that looked like it was heading somewhere real.
That's the thing about a sudden cardiac event — it doesn't negotiate. One moment everything is normal and the next it isn't.
Rest easy, Patrick.
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