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Celebrity Deaths 2026: Catherine O’Hara, Eric Dane & More Fallen Stars
A light has gone too soon.
Michael Patrick—an Irish actor known for his work on the stage and small screen—has died following a 3-year battle with Motor Neuron Disease (MND), his wife Naomi Sheehan confirmed on social media. He was 35.
Naomi wrote in an April 8 post that Michael "passed peacefully surrounded by family and friends" after 10 days in the hospital, adding, “Words can’t describe how broken-hearted we are.”
MND encompasses several neurological disorders—including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)—in which the body’s motor neurons experience premature degeneration, leading to difficulty with bodily functions such as breathing, swallowing, talking and walking. There is currently no cure.
“It’s been said more than once,” Naomi continued in her tribute, “that Mick was an inspiration to everyone who was privileged enough to come into contact with him, not just in the past few years during his illness but in every day of his life. He lived a life as full as any human can live. Joy, abundance of spirit, infectious laughter. A titan of a ginger haired man.”
She thanked everyone who had lent their support to her and Michael in the years since his diagnosis, before sharing a quote from the Irish poet Brendan Behan which she said was her husband’s favorite.
“‘The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you,’” she recalled. “So, don’t overthink it. Eat. Drink. Love.”
Michael Patrick/Instagram
In addition to work on the stage as a Shakespearean actor, Michael appeared in television series such as Blue Lights, This Town, Blasts from the Past and appeared in an episode for season six of Game of Thrones.
He also co-wrote and appeared in the BBC series My Left Nut, which was based on a one-man play he’d written about his teenage years during which he worried he had testicular cancer.
And much like that experience, following his diagnosis in 2023, Mickey channeled his feelings into a different one-man stage production, My Right Foot—the location where he first felt weakness as a result of his MND.
Calling it a “spiritual successor to My Left Nut,” Michael wrote of the production in May 2025, “I should be performing it at @lyricbelfast in October... as long as I'm not dead by then!”
Keeping it light, he warned, “That's the type of joke you can expect if you come to see the play.”
Michael Patrick/Instagram
Among his many stage experiences was an adaptation of The Tragedy of Richard III in 2024, in which Michael portrayed the English king from a wheelchair. In January 2025, he won the Judges’ award at The Stage Awards—one of the U.K.’s most prestigious drama honors.
At the close of the production in November 2024, Michael described the show as a “true once in a lifetime experience.”
“I have never felt more love and support,” he continued in post to Instagram. “Thank you to everyone who made the show, and everyone who came to see it. Couldn't be prouder of what we made.”
He also shared the final monologue he’d written for his character, an amalgamation of Shakespearean musings on death—a particularly moving finale for Michael to perform.
“That we shall die, we know. ‘Tis but the time, and drawing days out, that men stand upon,” reads the close of the monologue. “For death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”
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