On April 19, 2026, the actor Patrick Muldoon, aged 57, died from a heart attack in his home in Beverly Hills. His demise marks one of the major losses to the entertainment industry due to his over 30 years of providing a series of artworks in acting, producing, and just enjoying his work. It is indeed a sad time for the whole industry. But, in a way, it almost seems like there was some fate involved with Patrick having finished his last movie just a few days before he died, and with his good friend and former partner, Denise Richards.
The last piece of work he did with Denise Richards, Dirty Hands, has been a long time coming since they featured together on Starship Troopers (an enormously popular movie released in 1997). In Dirty Hands, the reunion of Patrick Muldoon and Denise Richards will bring emotional moments to the fans.
The release of Dirty Hands will be on April 24, 2026, five days after Patrick Muldoon passed away. It is truly a lot for fans to take in. Muldoon had been very active on social media, even up until his early demise, saying how much he liked making the movie and was anxiously awaiting the time for fans to finally see it. Now that fans know that this is the last filmed role of Muldoon’s, they will feel it even more deeply.
Taking place in the darkest areas of Chicago, after the drug deal goes wrong, Richie and Danny are being chased by a rival gang, along with Richie’s boss, while his girlfriend Sheila, played by Richards, is caught in a position of loyalty to Richie and his boss.
Rough, bloody, and violent, they are fighting for their lives in a grinder, and it is mostly based on the experiences of Patrick Muldoon’s characters from his earlier work.
Why did the reunion between Patrick Muldoon and Denise Richards mean more than just a movie?
The pairing of Patrick Muldoon with Denise Richards by the creators of Dirty Hands was not some random case of fate aligning the stars for these two people to work together. The fact that they had such a meaningful friendship spanning almost 30 years and did another movie together after being apart for many years shows how strong their friendship is and how they feel about each other.
Muldoon co-starred with Denise Richards, Casper Van Dien, and Neil Patrick Harris in Paul Verhoeven’s science fiction film Starship Troopers (1997), which went on to become a cult classic and arguably Muldoon’s most well-known role in a movie. Another thing that most people know is that both Denise Richards and Muldoon dated after that film was finished, and had a very real romantic relationship, but later broke up and remained close friends for many years.
They stayed just as close throughout the years. Muldoon posted plenty of comments on Richards’ Instagram over the years. Muldoon was at her wedding to Aaron Phypers in 2018 and even ended up appearing in the episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills where their entire wedding was filmed. Given how close they were, the thought of making a movie together appeared to be a natural progression of their friendship, as opposed to being just some random way together.
They had both worked on projects together recently outside of Dirty Hands, too. Richards was featured in a music video produced by Muldoon entitled “Gray Again.” That video shoot is also included in Denise Richards and Her Wild Things, which is her reality show from 2025. Their friendship continued until the end of Muldoon’s life.
The final days of Patrick Muldoon
Why Patrick Muldoon’s death is painful for many people to accept because of the amount of excitement and energy he had right before he died. Two days before he died, he and Denise Richards were together at the 2026 Saturn Awards on the red carpet together. Just a few days earlier, Patrick Muldoon posted on Instagram that he was executive producing a movie called Kockroach, featuring the talents of Chris Hemsworth, Taron Egerton, Zazie Beetz, and Alec Baldwin in Australia.
Patrick Muldoon was found unconscious at his Beverly Hills home by his wife, Miriam Rothbart. According to his sister Shana, the paramedics were called to the house by his wife and sister, but there was nothing they could do.
Dirty Hands is expected to release on April 24, 2026.
Edited by Sroban Ghosh