Dane Witherspoon, the former soap opera star who was once married to Robin Wright, has died at age 56.
The news of Witherspoon’s death was shared last weekend by fellow soap star, A. Martinez, who appeared on the NBC show with both Wright and Witherspoon. “Dane passed this morning,” Martinez wrote Saturday, March 29. “People who watched Santa Barbara in its earliest days will remember him as Joe Perkins, a character to which he brought a quiet grace and deep, bittersweet sense of soul.”
“He was a singular standup guy, loved and admired by many,” Martinez continued. “My first thought, upon meeting him in 1984: ‘This is the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.’ That beauty went all the way to his core.”
Witherspoon and Wright were married from 1986 to 1988, back when the Princess Bride actress was in her early 20s. After their marriage ended, Dane went on to marry Trading Places star Tracy K. Shaffer, although the two eventually divorced in 2011. They had no children.
Wright, 47, married Sean Penn in 1996, with whom she was together for 14 years and shares daughter Dylan and son Hopper. The House of Cards standout and boyfriend Ben Foster, 33, announced their engagement in January 2014.
Witherspoon’s cause of death has not yet been released.
