The This Is Us third season premiere went out to Alex Hanan, a close friend of screenwriter Dan Fogelman. Hanan died this summer, on July 23, of stage IV lung cancer.
Though the episode didn't touch on cancer or death, Fogelman dedicated the episode to his friend, flashing a decree over the credits that read, "In loving memory of Alex Hanan."
Hanan battled cancer for four years, despite being a non-smoker, and was often public about his struggle. He kept a blog about his illness, and in one 2014 entry, he mentions Fogelman.
"I put my hand on Dr. Dan’s shoulder, I told him this must be hard for you and I thanked him for being so kind," Hanan wrote. "I told my friend Dan Fogelman about this the next day over breakfast and he said ‘You consoled the Doctor while he was giving you the worst news in the world? Who does that?’"
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In another post, Hanan recalls being flown out to Europe to visit the set of Galavant, one of Fogelman's 2014 projects.
Hanan started the We Got This fund to fund treatment research, a site that is still live today. According to the We Got This fund website, Hanan served as vice president of Agency and Advertiser Development at Pandora Internet Radio. He moved to Brooklyn in 2017 for Pandora and lived in Greenpoint up until his untimely death this summer. He was 45.
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