What Happened to Phil Actor Ty Burrell From Modern Family?

The Gist:

• The Modern Family cast reunited in November 2023 for dinner and reconnection.
• Ty Burrell, the actor who played Phil on the show, was absent from the gathering.
• Many thought that Ty may have died, but it turns out that the actor is fine.

Cast reunions for long-running, popular shows can be emotional affairs for both the cast and anyone who watched the show every week for years. Recently, Modern Family fans took a stroll down memory lane after most of the cast reunited, with many of the kids looking a lot older than viewers may have remembered.

Although almost every member of the cast was involved in that reunion, which was publicized in a group photo, many noticed that the actor who played Phil wasn’t in attendance. What happened to Ty Burrell, the actor who played Phil on the show?

Ty Burrell played Phil, the patriarch of the Dunphy family, throughout the entirety of the show’s run. He was absent during the reunion, and many noticed that the cast was holding a picture of the actor. The decision to hold a picture of Ty in his absence led many to wonder whether the actor had died.

“Umm…why are they holding a picture of Phil like that,” one person wrote on Twitter under the picture of the reunion.

“Oh hell naw. For a second I thought Ty passed away and I didn’t even know,” another person added.

Although the cast holding Ty’s picture made many people think that he had died, that’s definitely not the case. The actor simply couldn’t attend the reunion for whatever reason. So, they decided to hold a picture of him instead, almost to indicate to anyone who saw the picture that he was absent but not forgotten.

It’s unclear why Ty couldn’t be at the reunion, but given that the rest of the cast decided to hold a picture of him, it doesn’t seem to be the case that Ty wasn’t invited or didn’t want to attend. What seems far more likely is that he had some sort of scheduling conflict that kept him from attending. There haven’t been any reports that he is ill or injured. Ty has continued to work regularly in the years since Modern Family ended.