# RIP Johnny - Patrick Swayze - dead at 57



## Shimmer (Sep 14, 2009)

Quote:

   LOS ANGELES — Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.

Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer.

He had kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting "The Beast," an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot. It drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.

Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making "The Beast" because they would have taken the edge off his performance. He acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.

A coming-of-age romance starring Jennifer Grey as an idealistic young woman on vacation with her family and Swayze as the Catskills resort's sexy (and much older) dance instructor, the film made great use of both his grace on his feet and his muscular physique.

It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," stage productions and a sequel, 2004's "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," in which he made a cameo.

Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad "She's Like the Wind," inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

And it allowed him to poke fun at himself on a "Saturday Night Live" episode, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent — and frighteningly shirtless — Chris Farley.

A major crowdpleaser, the film drew only mixed reviews from critics, though Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, "Given the limitations of his role, that of a poor but handsome sex-object abused by the rich women at Kellerman's Mountain House, Mr. Swayze is also good. ... He's at his best — as is the movie — when he's dancing."

Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action flick "Road House," in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar. But it was his performance in 1990's "Ghost" that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side. He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Demi Moore) — with great frustration and longing — through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.

Why did he want the part so badly? "It made me cry four or five times," he said of Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.

"Ghost" provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn't have won if it weren't for Swayze.

"When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick," Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."

Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.

His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.

"I couldn't get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho," he told the AP then. But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced "To Wong Foo," Spielberg didn't recognize him.

Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane. Swayze played Darrel "Dary" Curtis, the oldest of three wayward brothers — and essentially the father figure — in a poor family in small-town Oklahoma.

Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grandview U.S.A." (for which he also provided choreography) and "Youngblood," once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.

In the '90s, he made such eclectic films as "Point Break" (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western "Tall Tale" (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill. He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse. In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko," and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with "Chicago"; 2006 found him in the musical "Guys and Dolls" in London.

Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."

He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease." But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.

Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie "Skatetown, U.S.A." The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.

Swayze had a couple of movies in the works when his diagnosis was announced, including the drama "Powder Blue," starring Jessica Biel, Forest Whitaker and his younger brother, Don, which was scheduled for release this year.

Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.

Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center, People magazine reported in a cover story.  
 
*sob*


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## TISH1124 (Sep 14, 2009)

OMG I just asked my Mom about him on Saturday because I had not heard anything as of late....He will be terribly missed...What an amazing talent!!!


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## nichollecaren (Sep 14, 2009)

omgosh...


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## Shimmer (Sep 14, 2009)

I'm watching Roadhouse tonight.


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## MaskedBeauty (Sep 14, 2009)

thats so sad.. :-(


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## euphrosyne_rose (Sep 14, 2009)

I was so saddened to hear about that. Dirty Dancing is, and will always be, one of my all time favorite movies and he did an awesome job. We'll miss him!


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## chocolategoddes (Sep 14, 2009)

*To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar* is my favorite movie of all time, and I admire him for taking on that role. I'm gonna watch it right now!
I don't even know what to say. 

RIP Patrick Swayze. :'(


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## gigglegirl (Sep 14, 2009)

wow..... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 I should buy Dirty Dancing on dvd.


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## Shadowy Lady (Sep 14, 2009)

RIP Patrick


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## joey444 (Sep 14, 2009)

I'm so sad!!!  I had read this weekend that he had left the hospital and had gone home to pass away with his family.  How sad...=(  I hate cancer...


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## Rosalie1915 (Sep 14, 2009)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *chocolategoddes* 

 
_*To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar* is my favorite movie of all time, and I admire him for taking on that role. I'm gonna watch it right now!
I don't even know what to say. 

RIP Patrick Swayze. :'(_

 
Oh my gosh!! i love that movie too!! but it is horrible that he passed away, he will be missed . R.i.p Patrick Swayze


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## MizzVivaGlam (Sep 14, 2009)

That's so sad.The only good thing is that he was home with his family. Hopefully that helped him go peacefully and his loved one's got their chance to say everything they wished to say.


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## alka1 (Sep 14, 2009)

so sad.. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 may he rest in peace 

watching the movie Ghost will definitely be a different experience now that he is gone.. the movie is already so sad as it is


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## staceb1990 (Sep 14, 2009)

Awww
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I'm going to have to go watch the Outsiders now.


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## KimmyAnn_678 (Sep 14, 2009)

I'll always remember being a little girl watching Dirty Dancing even though we weren't allowed to...  Patrick Swayze was just so hot we couldn't resist.  He just always seemed so classy and down to earth.


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## aladysiren (Sep 14, 2009)

I'm so saddened to hear this may he rest in peace at least he will not have to suffer with this deadly illness anymore.


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## Shimmer (Sep 14, 2009)

YouTube - Dirty Dancing Clip - Collectors Edition out now on DVD


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## couturesista (Sep 14, 2009)

He was a great actor. I had no clue that he and his wife had been married for 34 yrs. clearly he was a good man too! 

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner" ahh, one of the best movie lines ever!


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## couturesista (Sep 14, 2009)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *couturesista* 

 
_He was a great actor. I had no clue that he and his wife had been married for 34 yrs. clearly he was a good man too! 

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner" ahh, one of the best movie lines ever!_

 
Ghost is my favorite movie, He was soooo good in that movie.
Sorry didn't mean to quote my own post


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## xsnowwhite (Sep 14, 2009)

aww thats really sad! he seemed ilke such a great guy.


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## BrittanyD (Sep 14, 2009)

Cancer takes away some of the most precious people.


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## purrtykitty (Sep 14, 2009)

So so sad.  Ghost is such a great movie.


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## panther27 (Sep 15, 2009)

That's horrible


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## Odette (Sep 15, 2009)

Rip.


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## Sushi~Flower (Sep 15, 2009)

*Goodbye Patrick Swayze....*

What a loss....
I will never forget him...
YouTube - Ghost ending


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## TISH1124 (Sep 15, 2009)

*Re: Goodbye Patrick Swayze....*

There is a thread already started on this 

http://www.specktra.net/forum/f222/r...d-57-a-149445/


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## User67 (Sep 15, 2009)

Such a same. He is one of my favorite actors & Dirty Dancing is my all time favorite movie. I feel for his wife, they loved each other so much. But, at the same time I know she will find peace knowing that he isn't suffering anymore. RIP Patrick....


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## TISH1124 (Sep 15, 2009)

I keep seeing him in Ghost...that is still one of my favorite movies of all times


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## BEA2LS (Sep 15, 2009)

RIP Patrick.. Dirty Dancing and Ghosts were amazing movies and he was a talented actor/dancer.


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## Sushi~Flower (Sep 15, 2009)

*Re: Goodbye Patrick Swayze....*

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *TISH1124* 

 
_There is a thread already started on this 

http://www.specktra.net/forum/f222/r...d-57-a-149445/_

 
oops, sorry did not see that...is it possible to move a post?


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## MzzRach (Sep 15, 2009)

He fought a brave battle.  My heart goes out to his family.


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## TISH1124 (Sep 15, 2009)

*Re: Goodbye Patrick Swayze....*

^^ Don't worry I am sure the MODs will merge it in with the existing thread soon


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## lauraglou (Sep 15, 2009)

So sad


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## Temptasia (Sep 15, 2009)

Rip


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## nunu (Sep 15, 2009)

RIP, Ghost is one of my favorite movies


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## BaDKiTTy69 (Sep 15, 2009)

this is so sad
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 he was a great actor! i know i will be watching my dvd's: Dirty Dancing and Ghost.
RIP


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## jungleland (Sep 15, 2009)

So sad to hear the news even if it was expected.
I remember wathching Dirty Dancing with my elder sister almost everyday and  listening to the soundtrack non stop.


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## Vixxan (Sep 16, 2009)

I must have seen dirty dancing at least 50 times and of course Patrick had a lot to do with it.  I will miss you.


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## DadaH (Sep 16, 2009)

Rip


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## cazgh (Sep 16, 2009)

Aw I am gutted and I never knew him at all.  But I loved him in Point Break - phwoar!!!!!

And I am truly saddened that he has gone - his wife must be devastated.


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## ElleK7 (Sep 16, 2009)

So sad with all these celebrities dying lately.


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