Patrick Muldoon, Days of Our Lives and Melrose Place star, dies at 57

Patrick Muldoon, whose work on Days of Our Lives and Melrose Place helped make him a familiar face to a national audience in the 1990s, died at 57. His family announced the death after he died on Sunday, April 19, 2026; multiple reports said the cause was a heart attack.

Muldoon first became widely recognizable as Austin Reed, the role he originated on NBC’s Days of Our Lives and played from 1992 to 1995 before returning from 2011 to 2012. That part anchored a run that made him one of the soap’s defining faces of the decade, and the show later paid tribute to him by calling him the original Austin Reed. He extended that visibility on Fox’s Melrose Place, where he played the villain Richard Hart from 1995 to 1996, adding a sharper prime-time edge to a career already tied to daytime television’s reach.

His screen work stretched beyond those two franchises. In 1991, he had a recurring role as Jeffrey Hunter on Saved by the Bell, and in 1997 he appeared as Zander Barcalow in Starship Troopers. Variety reported that Muldoon amassed nearly 100 acting credits and more than a dozen producing credits, a body of work that reflected both his longevity in front of the camera and his move behind it through Storyboard Productions.

That producing work included The Tribes of Palos Verdes, Arkansas, Marlowe, The Card Counter, The Dreadful and Riff Raff. He was also set to produce Kockroach, starring Chris Hemsworth, and posted on Instagram about the project just two days before his death, saying he was excited to be part of it. His latest acting role was reported as Dirty Hands, a crime thriller with Denise Richards and Michael Beach that is slated for release later this month.

The response from former co-stars underscored how deeply Muldoon remained connected to the shows that made him famous. Alison Sweeney paid tribute on X, and Lisa Rinna posted a broken-heart emoji in an Instagram story alongside a photo of the two. The loss lands with particular force for viewers who grew up with daytime television and the prime-time dramas that fed off its style, because Muldoon was part of the generation of actors who made that overlap feel seamless.

He is survived by his partner, Miriam Rothbart; his parents, Deanna and Patrick Muldoon Sr.; and his sister and brother-in-law, Shana and Ahmet Zappa, along with niece Halo and nephew Arrow Zappa.