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A classically trained dancer who cut his teeth on Broadway, shot to fame as an '80s Hollywood icon, and went a decade without a major role before returning to the small screen this year, Patrick Swayze met his latest challenge head on – speaking frankly about his battle with pancreatic cancer.

Diagnosed early last year, he chose to press ahead with his most recent project, A&E's drama The Beast, refusing painkillers while shooting the show and earning critical acclaim for his role.

Earlier this year, he told Barbara Walters he figured he might have two years to live, fighting a particularly deadly form of the disease. Lisa Niemi, his wife of 34 years and a licensed pilot, regularly flew him from their home in Los Angeles to northern California for treatment.

But on Monday, the one-time Sexiest Man Alive and three-time Golden Globe nominee lost his battle with cancer, passing away with his family at his bedside. 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,” his publicist wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Born in Houston in 1952, Mr. Swayze was the son of choreographer Patsy Swayze, who worked on John Travolta's Urban Cowboy and other films. The young Mr. Swayze was a skilled athlete who followed in his mother's footsteps by pursuing dance, over the criticism of his friends. In 1995, his mother told Britain's Sunday Mail that young Patrick, an accomplished athlete in boxing, wrestling and football, still endured ribbing when he took up ballet and violin.

Five classmates in particular would rough him up, Ms. Swayze said: “He went to the sports coach and arranged to fight them one by one in the gym. He beat them all.”

Mr. Swayze began his career in musical theatre before heading to Hollywood, where he had a number of middling roles in movies such as Red Dawn and The Outsiders.

But it was Dirty Dancing that shot him to the top of Hollywood's A-list. The athlete and classically trained performer was something of a perfect fit for Johnny Castle, the rough-around-the-edges dance teacher at a Catskills resort who won the heart of Frances (Baby) Houseman, played by Jennifer Grey.

Released to little critical acclaim, the love story was a commercial success, producing the iconic song (I've Had) the Time of My Life, and winning an Oscar. The movie spawned a stage show and a 2004 big screen spinoff, in which Mr. Swayze had a cameo appearance.

Three years after Dirty Dancing came Ghost, in which he played the late husband of Demi Moore. The movie earned two Oscars, including one for Whoopi Goldberg, who played a psychic through whom Mr. Swayze's character tried to contact his wife. She credited him for the award.

“When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick,” Ms. Goldberg said last year on The View. (She mourned him Monday night, saying in a statement to E!: “Patrick was a really good man, a funny man and one to whom I owe much that I can't ever repay. I believe in Ghost's message, so he'll always be near.”) But he had to fight to get the role. Director Jerry Zucker initially wanted Kevin Kline, but readings of six scenes persuaded him to give Mr. Swayze the part, Bloomberg reported.

“It made me cry four or five times,” he once said of Bruce Joel Rubin's script, which earned the film its second Academy Award.

Mr. Swayze hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, poking fun at himself in a memorable clip in which he and the characteristically heavy-set Chris Farley vied for a lone spot as a Chippendales dancer. A year later, in 1991, he was on the front of People magazine as its Sexiest Man Alive.

“He's one Hollywood hunk whose image has always been greater than the sum of his (sometimes awful) movie parts,” the magazine wrote.

Afterwards, Mr. Swayze's star began to fall. He starred alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo in 1995's To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, but also in the 1991's poorly-reviewed Point Break. Younger audiences may remember him for his role in 2001's Donnie Darko.

He was reported to have shunned big roles, including a Dirty Dancing sequel that would have earned him a reported $6-million. He was also an outspoken conservationist.

“For a while, I got sucked into that whole blockbuster mentality, where you're just living for the box office figures and selling your soul to a machine,” he told the London Evening Standard in 2006.

He was diagnosed in March, 2008, with pancreatic cancer – a deadly form of the disease with a one-year survival rate of 20 per cent, and a five-year rate of just 4 per cent, according to the Hirshberg Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.

Mr. Swayze had already shot the pilot for The Beast, and decided to press ahead and shoot the 13-episode first season. He put off painkillers in hopes of giving his performance as a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent a grittier tone, and spent his weekends in chemotherapy while shooting.

The show earned some critical acclaim – Globe and Mail writer Andrew Ryan wrote earlier this year that Mr. Swayze was “in fine form” and “very good” in the series, which “works on the strength of Swayze's performance.”

News of his death spread quickly Monday night. Ms. Moore's husband, Ashton Kutcher, tweeted: “RIP P Swayze.”

C. Thomas Howell, who co-starred with Mr. Swayze in The Outsiders, Grandview U.S.A. and Red Dawn, said: “I have always had a special place in my heart for Patrick. While I was fortunate enough to work with him in three films, it was our passion for horses that forged a friendship between us that I treasure to this day. Not only did we lose a fine actor today, I lost my older ‘Outsiders' brother.”

He fought the pancreatic cancer in a public way.

In an interview with Ms. Walters in January this year, he discussed openly the grim outlook for his diagnosis.

“I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking,” he said. “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.”

In February, Mr. Swayze wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post titled, “I'm Battling Cancer. How About Some Help, Congress?” in which he urged senators and representatives to vote for the maximum funding for the National Institutes of Health to fight cancer as part of the economic stimulus package.

He also appeared in the September, 2008, live television event titled “Stand Up to Cancer.”

“I keep dreaming of a future, a future with a long and healthy life, a life not lived in the shadow of cancer, but in the light,” he said at the time. “I dream that the word ‘cure' will no longer be followed by the words ‘is impossible.”'

With reports from The Associated Press and Bloomberg News