‘Hacks’ Star Jean Smart Opens up About Emergency Heart Surgery

Jean Smart is opening up for the first time about undergoing triple bypass surgery on her heart while filming Season 3 of Hacks.

The 74-year-old Golden Globe and Emmy winner, who had previously disclosed that she had undergone an unspecified heart procedure, shared the extent of her health scare in a new conversation with Variety published on April 8, revealing that she went directly from the set of her beloved HBO comedy to the hospital.

“I had gotten used to feeling a little pressure, like if I’d go up a couple of flights of stairs. But it would always just go away,” Smart shared, recalling that she was “feeling a little tired” after shooting one scene in 2023, but dismissed it as being in “such crappy shape.”

“It didn’t ever occur to me that it might be anything other than the fact that I needed to exercise more,” she revealed.

A few days later, when she returned to the set, Smart felt even worse, and thinking back on how she lost her husband, Richard Gilliland, in 2021, the actress decided to seek medical assistance.

“I thought, ‘You haven’t seen your cardiologist in a long time. Don’t be stupid. Your kids just lost their dad!’” she remembered, referencing sons Connor and Forrest. “So I left her a message, since it was after hours. I said, ‘I know I probably can’t get in to see you this week, but maybe I should do a stress test or something.’ Her service called back instantly and said, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna go to the nearest emergency room right now!’”

While Smart finished wrapping a scene, she told her driver after getting into her car, “Flag on the play. We’re not going back home. We’re going to the hospital.”

Hacks co-creator and co-star Paul W. Downs told Variety that he was also at the hospital when Smart arrived, as his mother had broken her ankle. “Her children had just lost their father, and I think she didn’t want to scare them, so they weren’t there,” he recalled. “Obviously her husband wasn’t there. I think she was waiting for her brother to fly in. And so I was there with her as she was talking to surgeons and hearing them say, ‘You can’t get a stent. You have to get a triple bypass.’”

After consulting with three surgeons, Smart underwent a triple bypass surgery, admitting, “I wasn’t really scared until I woke up the next day, and I’m thinking about what they had to do. You start to feel so fragile.”

Hacks star Hannah Einbinder was in the hospital room when Smart woke up, praising her castmate as “the most durable woman in America.”