Patrick Muldoon, the actor who originated the role of Austin Reed on Days of Our Lives and played the villain Richard Hart on Melrose Place, died on Sunday April 19, 2026, after suffering a sudden heart attack at his Beverly Hills home. He was 57.
His manager confirmed the death to Variety. His sister, Shana Muldoon-Zappa, told TMZ what happened that morning. Muldoon had coffee with his longtime partner Miriam Rothbart at their home, then went to take a shower.
When he had been in the bathroom longer than expected, Rothbart went to check on him and found him unconscious on the floor.
Paramedics responded and attempted to revive him but were unable to. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The day before he died, Muldoon posted on Instagram about a film he was producing that was currently shooting in Australia.
He had no idea it would be the last thing he wrote publicly. The comment section of that post has since filled with tributes from people who grew up watching him.
Who Was Patrick Muldoon?
Patrick Muldoon was born on September 27, 1968, in San Pedro, California.
He attended the University of Southern California on a scholarship, played football for the Trojans, was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, and studied drama.
His build and looks caught the attention of a talent scout while he was still a student, which led to a Calvin Klein campaign that opened the first doors to Hollywood.
He graduated in 1991. He was 57 years old and working harder than he had in years when he died.
Muldoon is survived by his partner Miriam Rothbart, a record producer and former entertainment lawyer, his parents Deanna and Patrick Muldoon Sr., his sister Shana and her husband Ahmet Zappa, and his niece Halo and nephew Arrow Zappa. He had no children.
Muldoon’s Work On Television
His first television role came while he was still in college, a two-episode arc on Who’s the Boss? in 1990, playing a character named Matt.
Shortly after graduating in 1991, he landed a recurring three-episode role on Saved by the Bell as Jeffrey Hunter, a college-age character whose arrival became the catalyst for the infamous breakup between Zack and Kelly.
That detail from a Friday afternoon sitcom in 1991 has been cited in tributes from people who are now in their 40s. It lodged.
In 1992 he joined Days of Our Lives as Austin Reed, a role he originated and played through 1995.
It was his first sustained leading role and the work that made him a recognizable figure to daytime television’s enormous audience.
Austin Reed was a hero, decent, principled and perpetually caught in complicated emotional situations, which is the job description for a soap opera lead.
Muldoon played it straight and it worked. He returned to the role in September 2011 and played it again through July 2012, which is the kind of thing that only happens when an audience remembers who you were.
From 1995 to 1996 he moved to primetime with a recurring role on Melrose Place as Richard Hart, Seasons 3 through 5.
Hart was the opposite of Austin Reed in almost every way, a villain, manipulative and deliberately unsympathetic. The ability to play both is not nothing.
Starship Troopers
In 1997, Paul Verhoeven cast Muldoon as Zander Barcalow in Starship Troopers, the adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s novel about a future war between humanity and an alien species of giant insects.
The film, which also starred Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards and Neil Patrick Harris, was received with confusion on its initial release and has since been recognized as a sharp piece of satirical science fiction that was doing something more sophisticated than its surface suggested.
Barcalow was a pilot and a rival for the female lead’s affections, a role that required Muldoon to hold his own in a cast where Verhoeven was deliberately casting pretty faces in service of a commentary on fascism and military propaganda.
The film became a cult classic. A generation of people who watched it as teenagers recognized his name immediately when the news broke Sunday.
Muldoon’s Later Career
Muldoon worked continuously for three decades after Starship Troopers.
He appeared in dozens of independent films and television movies, Bad Karma, Blackwoods, Broken Angel, Black Cat Run, Stigmata, Deadlock, Vanquish, Dakota, Marlowe, Murder at Hollow Creek, and became a reliable presence in Lifetime and Hallmark productions where he typically played leading men and authority figures.
The volume of work reflects someone who showed up, did the job and stayed employable in a business that is not designed to keep people employable.
He was also building a second career as an executive producer through his production company Storyboard Productions.
The credits include The Tribes of Palos Verdes, Arkansas, Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter, the Neil Moritz-produced Marlowe, and several other features.
Most recently he had executive produced Kockroach, a crime film currently shooting in Australia, directed by Matt Ross and starring Chris Hemsworth, Taron Egerton, Zazie Beetz and Alec Baldwin.
His final completed film, Dirty Hands, a crime thriller co-starring Denise Richards and Michael Beach, is scheduled for release on April 24, 2026. He died five days before it comes out.
His Last Post On Instagram
The day before he died, on Saturday April 18, Muldoon posted to Instagram about Kockroach. “So excited to be a part of this amazing project KOCKROACH directed by Matt Ross starring Chris Hemsworth, Taron Egerton, Zazie Beetz and Alec Baldwin. Filming now in Australia.”
He was excited about what was coming next. The replies to that post are now condolences.
Was Patrick Muldoon Also A Musician?
Beyond acting and producing, Muldoon was the lead singer and guitarist for a rock band called The Sleeping Masses, which he formed with Neil Ives.
The group’s 2009 track “The Woman Is the Way” appeared in the film Powder Blue and on MTV’s The Hills. Music was not a sideline for him, people who knew him described it as a passion that sat alongside his film and television work rather than underneath it.
A friend, in tribute, described him as someone who embraced each day “with a full-tilt, rock ‘n’ roll spirit” and “gave unforgettable hugs.”
He was 57, working on a movie with Chris Hemsworth, and posting about how excited he was. Then he went to take a shower.
