Patrick Muldoon, the actor who became a household name playing Austin Reed on Days of Our Lives and the villain Richard Hart on Melrose Place, was found dead at his Beverly Hills home on Sunday, April 19, 2026. He was 57 years old. His sister, Shana Muldoon-Zappa, confirmed that the cause of death was a heart attack, and the news sent shockwaves through the entertainment world almost immediately.
What makes the loss feel even more abrupt is the fact that Muldoon was actively working right up until the end. Just two days before his death, he’d been posting on Instagram about an upcoming film project. There was no long illness, no public struggle, no slow goodbye. One morning he was drinking coffee with his girlfriend. A few minutes later, he was gone.
What Happened on Sunday Morning
According to reports confirmed by family, Muldoon spent Sunday morning at his Beverly Hills home with his longtime girlfriend, Miriam Rothbart. The two shared coffee together, and then Muldoon went to take a shower. When he didn’t come out for an extended period, Rothbart went to check on him and found him unconscious on the bathroom floor.
Paramedics were called and rushed to the scene, but they were unable to revive him. No additional details beyond the heart attack have been made public. Friends and colleagues said Muldoon had no known prior issues and appeared active and upbeat in his final days, which is part of what made the news so jarring for people who knew him.
The Role That Made Him Famous
If you watched daytime television in the 1990s, you knew Patrick Muldoon’s face. In 1992, he landed the role of Austin Reed on the long-running NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives after what he once described as a “big cattle call.” He screen-tested with Tracy Middendorf, who was playing Carrie Brady at the time, and the chemistry was obvious.
What followed became one of the most iconic love triangles in daytime TV history. Austin, Carrie (later recast with Christie Clark), and Carrie’s scheming little sister Sami Brady, played by Alison Sweeney, became appointment viewing for soap fans across the country. That triangle is still talked about decades later, and for good reason. It was peak soap opera storytelling, and Muldoon was right in the middle of it.
His performance earned him a Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Male Newcomer. A few months after Muldoon debuted in Salem, Lisa Rinna arrived as his on-screen sister Billie Reed. The show was stacking talent during that era, and Muldoon was a central part of its golden run.
He left Days of Our Lives in 1995, and the role of Austin was later recast with Austin Peck. But Muldoon came back to reprise the character from 2011 to 2012, proving the audience never really forgot him.
Melrose Place, Starship Troopers, and a Career That Never Slowed Down
After leaving Days of Our Lives, Muldoon jumped to primetime. From 1995 to 1996, he played the villainous Richard Hart on the Fox soap opera Melrose Place. It was a different kind of role for him, leaning into the “cad” side of his range, and he pulled it off.
Then came what might be his most recognizable film role. In 1997, Muldoon played the cocky pilot Zander Barcalow in Paul Verhoeven’s cult sci-fi classic Starship Troopers. Zander was the obnoxious rival to Casper Van Dien’s Johnny Rico, the guy who openly pursued Rico’s girlfriend Carmen Ibanez, played by Denise Richards. It was a role that could’ve been one-dimensional, but Muldoon gave it swagger and just enough charm to make it memorable. The movie has only grown in stature over the years, and Muldoon’s role in it has aged well.
Before all of that, he’d had early TV appearances on Who’s the Boss? in 1990 and a recurring role as Jeffrey Hunter, the manager at The Max, on Saved by the Bell in 1991. His career stretched back more than 35 years and never really had a dormant period. He kept showing up, kept working, kept finding new projects.
He Was More Than an Actor
What a lot of people didn’t know about Muldoon was how much he did behind the camera. Through his company Storyboard Productions, he produced a string of well-regarded films, including The Tribes of Palos Verdes, Arkansas, Marlowe, The Card Counter, and Riff Raff. That’s not a vanity producing credit on a single indie film. That’s a real, working production slate.
He was also a musician, fronting a band called The Sleeping Masses. Their song “The Woman is the Way” appeared in the 2009 film Powder Blue and on the MTV series The Hills. The guy had range, and he pursued all of it seriously.
Born William Patrick Muldoon III on September 27, 1968, in San Pedro, California, he had Irish roots on his father’s side and Croatian roots on his mother’s. He attended Loyola High School in Los Angeles and then went to USC, where he studied English and communications, played tight end for the Trojans football team, and graduated in 1991. He also did some modeling during and after college, which is how talent scouts first noticed him.
He Was Working Until the Very End
This is the part that really gets you. Muldoon didn’t slow down. He was still actively producing and acting right up until his death. On April 17, just two days before he died, he posted excitedly on Instagram about his work as executive producer on Kockroach, a crime thriller starring Chris Hemsworth, Taron Egerton, Zazie Beetz, and Alec Baldwin, which was filming in Australia. That post, full of genuine excitement about the project, is now considered an accidental farewell.
He also had three posthumous film projects completed before his passing: Dirty Hands, Stay at Home, and Pray for Me: Key to Freedom. Dirty Hands, a crime thriller co-starring Denise Richards and Michael Beach, was slated for release on April 24, just five days after Muldoon’s death. Richards, notably, was also his former longtime girlfriend. The two had remained close friends for years.
Muldoon was last seen publicly at the Saturn Awards in March 2026, where he appeared to be in good spirits, talking about his upcoming projects with the kind of energy you’d expect from someone with no plans to stop anytime soon.
Tributes Poured in Immediately
The reaction from Muldoon’s colleagues was swift and genuinely emotional. Casper Van Dien, his Starship Troopers co-star, shared on Instagram that he was “deeply saddened, devastated and overwhelmed” by the loss. Van Dien said the two had been close friends for over 36 years. “I’ve lost the friend I could be the most authentic version of myself with,” Van Dien wrote. “Can’t believe you’re gone. RIP, brother.”
Alison Sweeney, who played Sami Brady opposite Muldoon’s Austin Reed on Days of Our Lives, called the news “heartbreaking” on X. “Pat was a rare kind of person, brilliantly talented, endlessly kind, and generous in spirit,” she wrote. Sweeney said Muldoon helped put her at ease when she first started on the soap, which says a lot about the kind of person he was on set.
Dean Cain, who appeared with Muldoon in The Dog Who Saved Christmas films, posted a simple tribute: “RIP, my friend.” Melrose Place co-star Daphne Zuniga shared several photos from their time on the show, calling him “such a good, kind guy, always creating, going deeper, challenging himself.”
Friends described Muldoon as someone who “gave unforgettable hugs” and embraced each day with a “full-tilt, rock ‘n’ roll spirit.” He was affectionately known as “Bobo” among his inner circle.
Who He Leaves Behind
Muldoon is survived by his partner Miriam Rothbart, his parents Deanna and Patrick Muldoon Sr., his sister Shana Muldoon-Zappa and brother-in-law Ahmet Zappa (son of Frank Zappa), and their children, his niece Halo and nephew Arrow Zappa.
For anyone who wants to revisit his work, his iconic turn as Austin Reed on Days of Our Lives is available to stream on Peacock and Paramount+. Melrose Place is on Prime Video. Starship Troopers can be rented on most major platforms.
Patrick Muldoon built a career that lasted more than three and a half decades. He moved between daytime television, primetime dramas, big-budget action movies, independent films, music, and producing without ever really stopping. He was 57, still hustling, still creating, still excited about what came next. And then, on an ordinary Sunday morning in Beverly Hills, he was gone. That’s the cruelty of it. There was no winding down, no final chapter. Just a guy who loved what he did, doing it until the very last day.
