Cause of death confirmed for Patrick Muldoon: heart attack

Patrick Muldoon‘s cause of death has been confirmed as a myocardial infarction. The Days of Our Lives actor died on April 19, 2026, at age 57. His death certificate lists a pulmonary embolism and hereditary coagulopathy as underlying conditions that contributed to the heart attack.

Hereditary coagulopathy is a genetic disorder that disrupts the body’s blood clotting function. A pulmonary embolism occurs when a blood clot blocks circulation in the lungs. The combination of conditions created an elevated cardiovascular risk. Both were identified on Muldoon’s death certificate as factors preceding the cardiac event. According to People, he was cremated on April 21, two days after his death.

Patrick Muldoon’s cause of death and his television career

Born on September 27, 1968, Muldoon spent most of his career in American television during the 1990s and into the following decade. He joined Days of Our Lives in 1992, playing Austin Reed, a character who became central to many of the show’s plotlines in the early to mid-1990s. He held the part until 1995, then returned to reprise it in 2011, maintaining a connection to the soap opera that first brought him to a national audience nearly two decades earlier.

Between his two stints on Days of Our Lives, Muldoon appeared as villain Richard Hart on Melrose Place from 1995 to 1996. Melrose Place was one of the most watched primetime dramas on American network television in that era, and Hart’s antagonist role gave Muldoon a character type distinct from his daytime work. The show ran seven seasons and drew consistently large audiences throughout the mid-1990s, making it a prominent platform for the actors who appeared on it.

In 1997, Muldoon appeared as antagonist Zander Barcalow in Starship Troopers. The science fiction film followed military recruits fighting an alien species and developed a following after its theatrical release that extended well into subsequent decades. Muldoon’s performance was part of an ensemble cast that gave the film much of its lasting character.

Tributes from co-stars

After news of Muldoon’s death became public in April, peers from across his career responded. Denise Richards and Lisa Rinna, both with long television careers that crossed paths with Muldoon’s at various points, were among those who paid public tribute. Others from his work in daytime and primetime television also offered acknowledgments.

Muldoon’s death came without any prior public indication of illness. The death certificate, reviewed in the weeks following the initial announcement, confirms hereditary coagulopathy, a genetic blood clotting condition, and a pulmonary embolism as the underlying factors behind the myocardial infarction. He was 57 and had been cremated before the full cause of death was publicly disclosed.