Numerous characters from Roseanne have yet to appear on The Conners, the top-rated revival series of the notorious 90s sitcom. That includes the controversial star of the previous iteration, Roseanne Barr, and actor Glenn Quinn, who previously portrayed Mark Healy, Becky Conner’s dimwitted and rebellious boyfriend. Roseanne and Mark were both written off the series through the off-screen death of their characters, but only one of these two stars had passed away in real life.
Following the end of Roseanne’s original run in 1998, Glenn Quinn was found dead in a friend’s home in North Hollywood in December 2002. At the time of Glenn’s death, Mark Healy was still the most significant role he had ever had, and when Roseanne returned for one last season in 2018, his passing was addressed by Mark having passed away off-screen during the intervening years. What happened to Mark went unexplained for a long time, but now, in the 100th episode of The Conners, the series has finally provided the touching tribute he deserved all along.
What Happened to Actor Glenn Quinn?
He Tragically Passed Away In the Early 2000s
Glenn Quinn was born in Dublin in 1970, the son of a musician. His father was the lead singer of The Miami Showband. At 18, he moved to Los Angeles, and two years later, he appeared in commercials for Pepsi and Ray-Ban. That same year, Quinn was cast as the recurring character Mark Healy during the third season of Roseanne. He remained an integral part of the series from that point on until it ended for the first time in 1997.
Mark was primarily defined by his dysfunctional nature. Neither Roseanne nor Dan were fans of Mark when they first met him, but over the years, they recognized his devotion to their daughter, Becky, and he came to accept them as the parents he had always wished for. Once Roseanne finished its run, Glenn Quinn was cast as Allan Francis Doyle in Angel, who, despite his fan-favorite nature, was killed off early in Season 1.
Behind the scenes, Glenn Quinn succumbed to substance abuse issues following the conclusion of Roseanne. Shortly after that series ended, Glenn returned to his native Ireland to be supported by his family as he attempted to get clean. He found intermittent periods of sobriety and headed back to Los Angeles to resume his acting career.
Back in LA, Glenn stayed at a friend’s home in North Hollywood for a few months. On December 3, 2002, his body was found in that home, and it was later reported that he had died from an accidental overdose earlier that day. Glenn Quinn was only 32 when he passed away. When Roseanne returned to the airwaves in 2018, it was decided that in Glenn’s passing would be honored by choosing to write Mark out of the series.
Of course, the one character on The Conners who had to deal most directly with the aftermath of Mark’s death was his wife, Becky Conners. Roseanne and Dan’s eldest daughter, Becky, has had a chaotic time trying to make sense of her life throughout both franchise iterations. After finally finding some semblance of happiness with Mark at the end of Roseanne, once the series was revived as The Conners, it was revealed that Becky battled alcoholism as a direct result of her husband’s death.
Throughout Season 1 of The Conners, Becky’s character arc saw her trying and finally succeeding in having a child, her daughter Beverly Rose. During that entire process, Becky is also trying to make peace with the mess that Mark’s death made of her life, something her father, Dan, also has a tough time with. As far as Dan’s concerned, Mark was a selfish punk who ruined his daughter’s life by taking the money that was meant to be for Becky’s education and spending it on mechanic school that he never ended up finishing.
From Becky’s point of view, she was just as guilty of the same mistakes as Mark because she let him do these things out of fear of potentially losing him otherwise. Recognizing how much his daughter was beating herself up for the mistakes of her life, Dan eventually softened and told Becky that no matter what had happened, he was proud of the woman she had become. Recently, Season Six of The Conners has gone a long way towards seeing Becky finally get her life on track. But for Becky and The Conners to finally move on from Mark, his death had to be addressed one final time.
Following Glenn Quinn’s passing, Roseanne and The Conners have paid tribute to the late actor and the character of Mark Healy a few different times. When Roseanne was brought back for one final tenth season in 2018, Mark’s passing was briefly addressed off the top, with Becky having said that he died in an “accident.” In addition, Becky’s sister, Darlene, and her husband, David (also Mark’s brother), named their son Mark in his honor.
In Episode 4 of Roseanne’s final season, “Eggs Over, Not Easy,” it was revealed that Becky and Mark had always planned on starting a family together but never had the chance. This inspired Becky to embark on a surrogacy journey that ultimately did not prove successful. At the end of that episode, a portrait of Mark is displayed prominently in the Conner household.
It wouldn’t be until Episode 18 of Season Three of The Conners, titled “Cheating, Revelations, and a Box of Doll Heads,” that audiences finally learned what happened to Mark in-universe. While Glenn Quinn had passed away from a drug overdose in real life, the series never hinted at what had transpired with Mark. During this episode, Mark’s fate was finally revealed: he had died in a freak motorcycle accident when a deer jumped in front of him on the road. As impactful as it was to finally learn what had happened to Mark, this story beat had much more to do with Becky coming to terms with her situation than paying tribute to Glenn Quinn. That moment wouldn’t arrive until more recently.
Hard as it may be to believe, The Conners is still going strong and recently finished airing the final episodes of its sixth season! Episode seven, titled “Smash and Grab and Happy Death Day,” returned to Mark and Becky’s story one last time as Becky attempted to explain the passing of her former husband to her young daughter, Beverly Rose. In a wonderfully poignant scene, Becky’s sister, Darlene, assists her sister in explaining the intricacies of death, using Mark as an example. If this is the last time Mark Healy is mentioned, it’s a fitting and poetic way for his character to be laid to rest.
Over the years, a few of Glenn Quinn’s co-stars have shared words of love and support for their friend and co-worker who passed away far too young. In a Facebook post from 2018, Quinn’s Roseanne co-star, Michael Fishman, who plays D.J. Conner, posted a touching tribute to his friend, writing:
“Glenn is missed by us daily. He remains part of the show, and close to our hearts. Before each taping we do cast introductions for the audience. We come out of Roseanne and Dan’s master bedroom, through the kitchen to meet the crowd. It is an exhilarating immediate connection with fans. In that hallway, I brought in Glenn’s picture, we each pass it before every episode we film. We remember Glenn every day. He will always be with us, part of us, part of the #Roseanne show and family.”
Then there’s Lecy Goranson, who portrayed Becky Conner during the first few seasons of Roseanne and the more recent revival iterations of the franchise. Lecy worked the closest with Glenn of all her co-stars and during a conversation with Access Live, she told them, “The show is dedicated to his memory and his life. It was very interesting because while we were shooting the show there were many times where we felt his presence with us very, very strongly. He was just such a wonderful, wonderful, generous person and lovely.”
As tragic as it is that Glenn Quinn passed away at such a young age, it feels apropos that Roseanne and The Conners found ways to pay tribute to his pivotal role in the franchise’s early success. Had he not been there to serve as a comic foil to Roseanne, Dan, and, at times, Becky herself, who knows how things might have worked out differently. Perhaps more impressively, Quinn’s legacy continues to impact the show. Whether Mark Healy is ever mentioned again, the actor and character will have played a significant role in one of television’s longest-running franchises.
