Mark is played by Dick Van Dyke.
Dr. Mark Sloan has been in medicine for over 40 years and is chief of internal medicine at Community General Hospital as well as being a consultant to the LAPD. As a doctor, he is the black sheep of the family, coming from "a long line of cops" (his father James was a police detective). He refers to himself as an amateur sleuth.
Mark has an older sister, Dora, who owns a travel agency. He also has a younger brother, Stacey, who owns a malt shop in Arkansas and has a tendency to sleepwalk.
Mark is a widower, since his wife Katherine died of cancer a little over 10 years ago. With Katherine, he had two chidren. His son Steve (with whom Mark shares his Malibu beach house) is lieutenant and police detective for the LAPD. Mark also had an estranged daughter, Carol Sloan Hilton (Stacey Van Dyke), a nurse, who lived in Northern California before he got murdered.
His first home was a small house at 6464 E. Colorado Drive, Los Angeles. Sometime later, he buys a beach house is located at 3231 Beach Drive, Malibu.
To pay for medical school, Mark served in the army during the Korean War.
Mark likes jazz and Glenn Miller, enjoys dancing (soft shoe and tap). He can play a number of instruments including the clarinet and keyboards. He is good at chess and can often be found rollerblading when his car breaks down. His party piece is magic tricks.
Some facts:
-His father was murdered when Mark was 10 years old (Sins of the Father)
-His wife Katherine was previously engaged to Harry Trumble before marrying Mark
-Has a cousin called Jonathan Nash who is murdered by one of his three children (Inheritance of Death)
-When Mark was just out of residency he helped his extremely ill and deteriorating Grandmother end her life by prescribing alot of morphine (Today is the Last Day of the Rest of My Life)
-He described antibiotic for the patient, who was allergic. But there was no reaction (The Silent Partner-book)
-He is silent partner of BBQ Bobs
-Has a hand puppet called Norman
-Enjoys rollerskating
-Enjoys performing magic tricks for the children in the hospital (Sleight Of Hand)
-Has an electric scooter (seen in many episodes) which he frequently falls off, one time breaking his leg!(On the Beach)
-Likes Buster Keaton silent movies
-He's a good singer
-Once filled in for Denise Steiner, a radio presenter (The Mouth That Roared)
-His home security system passcode is 44779 circus (A Blast From The Past)
-Blood type O (Murder Can Be Contagious)
-Can't use chopsticks (Two Birds with One Sloan)
-Appeared on 'Through the Roof' gameshow and won $150,000 of which he donates half to Community General and the other half to research (Two Birds with One Sloan)
-Once faked his own death (The Murder of Mark Sloan)
-There was look-alike Mark gangster in LA (Gangland)
-Mark saw a dream while being unconscious; he had a wife called Dr. Emily Noble. He also dreamed about that Jesse was dead. He almost solved a murder in his dream. (The Double Life-book)
-ALMOND CORK ROAST is an anagram of DOCTOR MARK SLOAN (By Reason of Insanity)
