Tragic Details About Modern Family Star Ty Burrell

Throughout his 20-plus-year acting career, Ty Burrell has been involved in some pretty high-profile productions, from the 2008 superhero flick "The Incredible Hulk" to the 2016 Pixar sequel "Finding Dory" — not to mention a hilarious Greenlight Super Bowl ad in 2022. However, his most well-known and memorable role is that of the caring but often clueless father, Phil Dunphy, on the acclaimed ABC sitcom "Modern Family," which aired from 2009 to 2020.

Just like anyone, Burrell has faced his fair share of trials and tribulations over the years — some related to acting, like the grind of endless auditions, and some fairly universal, such as the loss of a loved one. He has spoken openly about how these experiences shaped his life and career. For instance, in a 2017 interview with Men's Journal, Burrell recalled feeling rather directionless and unmotivated during his early college days. "I drained the state of weed," Burrell said of his time at the University of Oregon, adding, "It was like a thatch hut, constantly on fire, and I was living inside. I remember going out to buy weed in my underwear once. Like it was too much work to pull on my pants." Ultimately, the sad death of his father is what pushed Burrell to kick his marijuana habit, re-commit to his education, and pursue acting in earnest. But there's certainly more to his story. 

Ty Burrell's father died of cancer not too long after Burrell started attending college in his home state of Oregon. In 2020, the "Modern Family" actor joined forces with the American Cancer Society (ACS) for a video posted to the organization's Facebook page as part of the "Share the Light" campaign — which sought to promote cancer research by placing an emphasis on stories of hope and survival. In the video, Burrell discussed how cancer had cast a shadow over his personal life ever since he was a young man and his hope to see things change for the better someday.

"I lost my father to cancer — pancreatic cancer — when he was 49," Burrell said, adding, "I was 20, just about 21. So, my family has a strong sense for how brutal of a disease it is and how important treatment — and progress in treatment — is." The actor then took a moment to highlight a close friend of his, as well as his father-in-law, both of whom have had to face the disease as well. He added that his hope in supporting the ACS was to keep progress moving toward a world where there is no cancer and no families have to go through what his family did.

You've likely heard a few stories about actors thinking about leaving Hollywood just before getting their big break — whether it's Melissa McCarthy almost quitting acting a week before booking "Gilmore Girls" or Chris Hemsworth nearly doing the same right before he was cast as Marvel's Thor. Ty Burrell had a similar experience and recalled in a 2012 interview with Glamour that he was just about ready to walk away when ABC came calling for "Modern Family."

Burrell explained that going on a myriad of auditions, only to be turned down most of the time, took a toll on him. Moreover, he confessed that part of the reason he stuck with acting was that he didn't think he had any other option. "I'm not burdened with another skill set," Burrell laughed, adding, "I really can't do anything else." But even so, the industry started to be too much for him, and he was seriously considering what other options he had. 

Burrell also revealed that his wife, Holly, had herself quit acting a number of years prior. "She still loves performing, but the business is so weird and hard. I was in a similar boat where I didn't know if I could keep it up," he said. It's not hard to see why Burrell may have been frustrated, as most of his TV jobs up until that point were either one-off appearances on dramas or main roles on short-lived sitcoms. Fortunately, "Modern Family" came along and offered him long-term stability.

During the final season of "Modern Family" in 2020, art imitated life for Ty Burrell, whose character, Phil Dunphy, had to experience the death of his father, Frank Dunphy, played by Fred Willard. Shortly after the episode aired that January, Burrell confessed that it was an emotional farewell in an interview with Us Weekly. "Modern Family" was Burrell's second time working with Willard; the first was the short-lived 2007 Fox sitcom "Back to You." Speaking about Willard's character dying on the show, Burrell said, "It's kind of a professional goodbye to him. He is one of my favorite actors of all time, and I would say he's influenced me as an actor more than anybody ... So, it was actually a pretty emotional episode."

Little did anyone know at the time that Willard would soon be among the "Modern Family" stars who have sadly died. In May 2020, just four months after the ABC sitcom said goodbye to his character (and just one month after the show itself ended), Willard passed away at the age of 86. "I am incredibly grateful that I had the chance to say farewell to him on screen — and off — during the final season," Burrell said (via Entertainment Weekly), adding, "There are so few people we really get to say goodbye to." He saw Willard as a mentor, so Burrell deeply felt the loss of his TV dad. 

In 2022, "Modern Family" star Sarah Hyland married former "The Bachelorette" contestant Wells Adams. Not only that, but Hyland's "Modern Family" co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson was the one to officiate the ceremony. However, Ferguson was a last-minute replacement. Ty Burrell had originally been tapped to do the honors but had to back out due to circumstances beyond his control, meaning he wasn't there to oversee this landmark moment in Hyland's relationship with Adams.

"I don't know if people know this, but Ty Burrell was meant to do it, and there was a family emergency," Ferguson told Entertainment Tonight several days after the wedding. "So, I got a phone call 12 days before the wedding, and that's why Ty wasn't there, he had stuff going on." At the time of writing, neither Burrell nor anyone else has revealed what the family emergency was — though it was no doubt important, given that it clearly demanded his full and immediate attention.

Still, while Burrell couldn't physically attend the wedding alongside his fellow "Modern Family" alumni, he did offer Ferguson some guidance when it came to presiding over Hyland and Adams' nuptials. "He hadn't written anything up, but he had some ideas, and I was like, 'Oh, this is all really good. This is a jumping-off place,'" Ferguson said. So, even though he couldn't make the event, Burrell was able to help make the day special for his TV daughter.

If you were a fan of "Modern Family," you've probably found yourself wondering what became of the show's cast after it ended. Well, for Ty Burrell, things ended up becoming rather slow on the acting front — which seems to be a recurring theme, given the frustrations he felt before landing "Modern Family." Around the time the ABC sitcom ended in 2020, Burrell began voicing a main character on the Fox animated series "Duncanville." However, the actor has yet to appear in another major TV project since that show ended in 2022. Burrell also hasn't graced the big screen since appearing in the 2017 Scarlett Johansson comedy "Rough Night."

Burrell seemed all set to return to ABC in March 2024 when the network gave a pilot order to "Forgive and Forget," a new sitcom starring and produced by the "Modern Family" alum. Just four months later, though, it came out that the project was effectively dead in the water. Apparently, ABC opted to pass on "Forgive and Forget" in favor of "Shifting Gears," another sitcom starring Tim Allen and Kat Dennings that premiered in January 2025. Back in July 2024, Deadline reported that Disney — which owns ABC — was still planning on giving Burrell a new show. As of this writing, however, there's still no word on when the actor's fans can expect to see him on their screens again.