Eric Dane wanted '80s music and delicious food at his funeral
Tragic actor Eric Dane wanted his funeral to be held at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles and for mourners to be entertained with 1980s music and served "delicious food".
Eric Dane wanted 1980s music and "delicious food" at his funeral.
The Grey's Anatomy star died in February at the age of 53 after a battle with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and he mused about plans for his memorial service in his newly-released memoir My Book of Days revealing the idea of detailing his own funeral made him feel "queasy" but he wanted his friends and family to gather at the Hollywood Palladium venue in Los Angeles. He also admitted he wanted an "an appropriate playlist", plenty of food and drink and for any speeches to be kept "short".
In his book, he wrote: "I have not planned my memorial service with anyone. But maybe I should. I want a lot of people. Enough to fill a large venue. I don’t mean the Greek Theatre or the Hollywood Bowl. I’m not Elton John. But I think I could fill the Hollywood Palladium. That seems like a proper venue.
"I have a lot of friends, and over the years I’ve accumulated a significant number of colleagues who would attend. I can justify the Palladium. Pretty sure I’d pack that place. I hope I’m not overselling myself."
He went on to add: "I want music. Wall-to-wall sound covering the full range of my taste: 80s alternative, new romantics, new wave, 90s alternative. I need somebody to curate an appropriate playlist.
"I want delicious food, tables of it. I want the drinks to flow ...People will want to speak. That’s fair. I wouldn’t mind hearing what they have to say. But keep the list short: five people, tops. And please keep those speeches tight. Five minutes, and if you go longer than that, I’ll start flashing lights or I’ll bring the music up loud."
Eric also revealed he wanted the Hawaiian Ho’oponopono prayer read during the service, adding: "Planning the details of my memorial makes me queasy. Dying is hard.
"It’s so f****** inconvenient. But still, I want to say [the prayer] thank you. Please forgive me. I forgive you. I love you."
Eric was remembered at a private funeral for his loved ones shortly after his death in February.
It comes after Eric's wife Rebecca Gayheart - the mother of his daughters Billie, 16, and 14-year-old Georgia - revealed the actor was "in control" of his death but none of them expected it to come when it did.
Speaking on Today, Rebecca, 55, said: "He had gone to the hospital so many times before, and they would patch him up, so to speak, and he would come home.
"And he’d be okay. And we’d go back to the normal routine, which did change week by week".
Rebecca and her daughters "never, ever anticipated" his death in February, and she planned to "be back" before leaving for the hospital.
She said: "I had no idea that that was it, that that week was going to be our last week. And nor did my daughters. It really took a few days for us to understand the gravity of what that last trip to the hospital meant."
But "everything shifted" by the third day, including “the tone of when the doctors were talking to us, and some of the information we were given", and Eric was fully aware that he was dying.
Rebecca said: "He was fully aware it was shifting, and he was still communicating with us. Not well verbally, but I could understand him most of the time.
"The kids could most of the time, his closest friends. He was figuring it out as we went.
"But I remember the moment Eric decided to make some choices, and he did ... He was in control of the way he was going to leave."
