Tragic Details About The Cast Of Everybody Loves Raymond

"Everybody Loves Raymond" was an instant hit with viewers when its first season aired back in 1996. The Emmy-winning sitcom turned everyday family life into a laugh-out-loud comedy with quite the cast of characters. The series centered on Ray Barone, played by actor Ray Romano, who was a successful sportswriter living on Long Island with his wife, Debra (Patricia Heaton), and their three kids. A stone's throw away — literally just across the street — lived Barone's parents, Marie and Frank (Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle), and Barone's brother, Robert (Brad Garrett). With sharp writing, relatable situations, and unforgettable characters, "Everybody Loves Raymond" delivered warmth, wit, and timeless laughs that still resonate with audiences today.

Over the course of the CBS show's nine seasons, the cast became more like family off-screen. They celebrated happy times together and also endured some devastating lows, but oftentimes, they did so together. Many of the actors involved with the series have dealt with tragic happenings from the past, while others went through life-changing misfortune while filming — and in the years that would follow. Now, we're taking a look at some of the most tragic details about the cast of the series.

You may have watched every episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and never knew that lead actor Ray Romano suffered from anxiety for much of his life. In a vlog recorded for the Child Mind Institute, Romano shared what he'd tell his younger self. The main message was that he was going to "be fine" and "do all right" despite the depression and anxiety he would experience in the years to come. As part of his important message, Romano said there's help and medication that can help someone get through the tough times. And while Romano's anxiety levels have fluctuated over the years, it's something he's had to deal with from time to time, even as an adult.

For example, when Romano stepped into a directing role for the film "Somewhere in Queens," he started having serious anxiety symptoms. "I got to New York for nine weeks of prep, second year of COVID. I'm with my wife and we go on location scout for Day 1 of nine weeks' prep. And I realize it's happening. I called my agent at one in the morning because I couldn't sleep. I go, 'I can't do it, can't do this. I can't stay here for nine more weeks and have this anxiety.' By Day 3, I'm not joking. I had to go to my cardiologist in New York and get on the treadmill and do a stress test because I was getting chest pains," Romano told Entertainment Tonight in April 2023.

Actor Brad Garrett was bullied when he was a kid, and it stuck with him. He opened up about his past in an interview about his role as Lord Grigon in "Elio" with The Direct. "I kind of related to Elio because I was that kid that was definitely not in the groups, you know, definitely a loner, bullied. And I think if you don't work it out and figure that out later in life, you become a Grigon. You got this shell. You make people pay for it. You're villainous," Garrett told the outlet in June 2025.

Interestingly, Garrett depended on comedy to get himself through some of the tough times he faced throughout his life. In a 2017 interview with Herald Mail Media, Garrett said that he was a "very awkward, odd type of kid." He explained that just about everyone thought he'd get into sports, but he admits he had more quirks than coordination. And so Garrett used humor to break the ice in a variety of situations, and being funny was way better than being weird. As he got older, he fine-tuned his skills, launching a successful stand-up comedy career in the early 1980s — and he still does stand-up to this day.

Peter Boyle really came into his own on "Everybody Loves Raymond," and it seemed he was made for his role as Frank Barone. Toward the end of filming, however, Boyle suffered a health emergency. "On my way into work, I had this chest pain and I kept coughing. I felt kind of pale and clammy and it just wouldn't stop. I didn't lose consciousness, and I didn't have any enormous pain. [It was] just this feeling that something was going on and I thought it would just pass," Boyle told CNN in October 2003. Though he thought he could just muscle through it, an assistant director recognized the concerning signs and called medical. Boyle was rushed to the hospital, where doctors confirmed he'd had a heart attack. After a few days of recovery, Boyle returned to the set of "Everybody Loves Raymond" to film scenes for the show's final episode.

Years prior, Boyle had suffered a stroke while working in Utah. He had noticed that he had trouble speaking and moving, which came on suddenly. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors were able to remove a blood clot, effectively saving his life.

Actress Patricia Heaton has spoken candidly about her struggles with drugs and alcohol over the years. In September 2021, Heaton appeared on the "Heart of the Matter" podcast and discussed her past, noting that she suffered from depression after losing her mom when she was 12. At one point, Heaton tried cocaine as a way to numb the pain but admitted it only made her depression worse. "That next day I was fine, but the day after the depression I felt was so intense, I thought, 'I am never going to do this again because I feel like I'm going to kill myself,'" she recalled.

Heaton also leaned on alcohol as a coping mechanism. She started to notice that she would drink whenever things went awry in her life and had developed a habit. By July 2018, however, Heaton decided to quit drinking alcohol. That decision didn't come until an embarrassing incident during a dinner with her family. "I was making a joke to the table, and I started saying, 'You know, in our family it's a tradition,' And I could not pronounce the word 'tradition,'" Heaton explained on the podcast. Her son looked at her and said, "Oh great, Mom. You can't even talk." In that moment, Heaton knew she needed to make a change. In July 2025, Heaton celebrated seven years of sobriety.

While millions of people tuned in to watch "Everybody Loves Raymond" week after week, many had no idea that Brad Garrett's marriage to Jill Diven was on the rocks. The then-couple, who tied the knot in 1999, hit a major rough patch a few years after the show had been on the air. By 2006, Garrett and Diven had separated. The comedian opened up to USA Today about the split, saying that he and Diven remained dedicated to raising their two children together. "We will always be friends because we will never be single parents. We will always be two parents," he said. He explained that two people "can't stay together for the kids" but maintained that keeping a close friendship with Diven would help get his kids through the challenging time. 

In an interview with South Coast Today back in 2007, Garrett was asked if he thought he'd ever remarry. "No, probably not," he replied. "I'm probably someone that shouldn't be married, you know? Or should be in captivity, one or the other," he added. He has always spoken very highly of Diven, however, openly admitting that the two were better friends than lovers. In his 2011 memoir, "When The Balls Drop," Garrett dove a bit deeper into the split, saying that he and Diven were two good people who "just didn't belong together" (via The Things).

In 2015, the cast of "Everybody Loves Raymond" was faced with an unthinkable tragedy when Sawyer Sweeten died by suicide at the age of 19. Sweeten and his twin brother, Sullivan Sweeten, portrayed the role of  Geoffrey Barone, and their older sister, Madylin Sweeten, played the role of Ally Barone, the children of Ray and Debra Barone. Sawyer took his own life while visiting his home state of Texas after suffering from severe depression. Much of the "Everybody Loves Raymond" cast spoke out following the tragedy, with Ray Romano calling Sawyer a "wonderful and sweet kid to be around." 

Sawyer's older sister, who was 23 years old at the time of her brother's death, has also spoken out about the devastating loss. "Like any human on this crazy planet, I've had my struggles. I was much less prone to notice them, however, before the premature death of my brother Sawyer," she said in a 2019 interview with Voyage LA. "My brother was a funny young man who also hated a lot of things. One day he was just different, he didn't like anything anymore. It happened fast, over a few weeks, and then he was gone. He took his own life, and we were blindsided," she said.

Something many people may not know is that Ray Romano had a scary health emergency that landed him in the hospital. He shared the news during an appearance on an April 2023 episode of the "WTF With Marc Maron" podcast. "I had to have a stent put in, at 90% blockage. I got kinda lucky that we found it before having a heart attack," Romano said, referring to the main artery in his heart. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this sort of blockage — when there isn't enough blood going to the heart muscle — is what leads to a widowmaker heart attack. This sort of heart attack is often fatal, which makes Romano, as he said, "kinda lucky."

Romano admitted that he'd struggled with his cholesterol for years, thinking he could control it with his diet but ultimately falling back into bad habits. Following his heart surgery, Romano started taking cholesterol medication, which he said had made a major difference. "If I could go back 20 years, I would have gone on the meds," he told Maron on the podcast.

Patricia Heaton was hit with a devastating loss in 2020 when her longtime friend Sue Ackerman died. "They joined us in Los [Angeles] for our wedding and they are also godparents to our eldest son Sam," Heaton shared of Ackerman and her husband in a touching Instagram tribute. "Sue later successfully battled cancer, but the radiation scarred her lungs, and for years she waited for a double transplant, which she finally got. It bought her many more wonderful years with Russ and their children Adriana and Alexander," she continued. Heaton went on to say that she'd visited Ackerman three months prior, and she was dealing with "some serious setbacks." Despite a recovery, Ackerman passed away in August of that year.

As part of her tribute, Heaton included some photos of her dear friend and a snapshot of "I Am Standing Upon the Seashore," a poem written by Henry Van Dyke. Heaton received a great deal of love and support from fans in the comments section of the post. "Sorry for your loss. May your memories together give you comfort until you meet again," one Instagram user wrote. "So sorry for this tremendous loss," another Instagram comment read.

Madylin Sweeten is best known for playing Ally Barone on "Everybody Loves Raymond," but years after her childhood stardom, she developed an alcohol dependency. "By the time I was 19, I had lived the lives of many people. I was lucky enough to see the world, meet my heroes, and work on a prime-time television series for nine years. Once my 20s came knocking at my door, I had spent so much time chasing adventures that I had forgotten to take care of my mental health," she candidly admitted in her 2019 interview with Voyage LA. "It's a tale as old as time, a bright young woman starts chasing booze and boys to fill the empty holes in her soul," she continued. "My life went on, directionless, like this for a while."

Eventually, Sweeten was able to pull herself out of that dark place and find peace in sobriety. In 2017, she took to Instagram to share that she'd been celebrating another year sober. She took some time to thank those who supported her through the journey — and even those who "doubted" her. "You are the reason I am here," she wrote.

Brad Garrett struggled with alcohol, though not many people realized that he had a problem. "I was what they call a high-functioning alcoholic," Garrett told Entertainment Tonight in 2015. "I hid it really well," he added. When things got particularly bad, Garrett was forced to make a decision. "It was just a realization that I probably wasn't going to make it," he said of what made him make the decision to stop drinking. "I would hit a fifth a day sometimes, and that's a lot," he admitted. As for the time frame, Garrett said this was all happening around the time that "Everybody Loves Raymond" was starting to "take off" — after the sitcom's first season.

In a 2023 interview on the "Sober Motivation" podcast, Garrett shared that he'd been sober since 1997. At one point during the conversation, Garrett revealed a hard truth that he had to swallow following years of drinking. "When I started working sober, I'm like, f***, if I just did this 10 years ago, you know, maybe I'd have a special." Indeed, though Garrett has appeared on a variety of comedy shows, he does not have his very own stand-up comedy special.

Actor Peter Boyle played the patriarch of the Barone family and was beloved both on-screen and off. In December 2006, Boyle died after diagnoses of heart disease and bone-marrow cancer, his publicist Jennifer Plante told People magazine. He was 71 years old at the time. The cast of "Everybody Loves Raymond" was absolutely devastated to learn of Boyle's death. "I am deeply saddened by the passing of Peter Boyle," Ray Romano shared, according to CBS News. "He gave me great advice, he always made me laugh, and the way he connected with everyone around him amazed me. The fact that he could play a convincing curmudgeon on the show, but in reality be such a compassionate and thoughtful person, is a true testament to his talent," he added.

Boyle had a very successful career with roles in films like "Young Frankenstein" and "Taxi Driver." However, he will perhaps always be remembered best as Frank Barone on "Everybody Loves Raymond." When the series came to a close in 2005, Boyle had nothing but wonderful things to say about "eight great years," and the "terrific" people he got to work with every day (via MeTV).

The cast of "Everybody Loves Raymond" was heartbroken to hear that Doris Roberts had died in April 2016 following a stroke. The news was confirmed by Patricia Heaton on X. "Truly the end of an era. My wonderful TV mother-in-law and ELR nemesis Doris Roberts was a consummate professional from whom I learned so much," Heaton wrote, adding that Roberts "loved life" and her three "wonderful grandchildren."

Born in Missouri and raised in the Bronx, New York, Roberts was determined to make it in the entertainment business. With roles in shows like "Full House" and "Step by Step," Roberts got some experience with sitcoms before landing her role as Marie Barone on "Everybody Loves Raymond." She lived an incredible life, with a successful career and a loving family, and her death was devastating to all who knew and loved her. "Doris Roberts had an energy and a spirit that amazed me. She never stopped," Ray Romano told People magazine of his TV mom and longtime friend, adding, "I will miss her dearly."