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.
