Patrick Swayze Loses His Battle With Cancer at 57
Patrick Swayze,the hunky actor who starred in two of the biggest romantic hits of the1980s, 'Ghost' and 'Dirty Dancing,' died Monday after a brave 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 by his publicist,Annett Wolf. No other details were provided. Remembering Swayze in Photos and Memorable Scenes >>>
Swayzes Cancer Battle
With his health and fight againstpancreatic cancer still looming, Patrick Swayze's show 'The Beast' hasbeen canceled after one season on the air. Swayze's been dealing withbigger issues of late, including having to deny death reports inmid-May.
Bryan Bedder, Getty Images
Swayze'sbattle with pancreatic cancer has been a public one at times. He's seenhere in January of 2009 giving his first television interview sincebeing diagnosed. Swayze told Barbara Walters that "You spend so muchtime chasing staying alive, you won't live."
Ron Tom, ABC
Swayze opened up about his cancer fight to PEOPLE in a March 2008 cover story to give his own take on his health.
PEOPLE
ForSwayze, family is key during these tough times. His wife Lisa "has beena rock. She's there to support him through all of this," according toSwayze's sister. Lisa and Patrick are seen here in London on Nov. 28,2005.
Lefteris Pitarakis, AP
Patrickand Lisa, here after the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk ofFame in Los Angeles on Aug. 18 , 1997, met at his mother's dance studiowhen he was 19 and she was 15.
Susan Sterner, AP
Lisa,left, and Patrick married in 1975. Facing Patrick's diagnosis, Lisa istaking charge of his fight and recovery, including flying him tochemotherapy, making special high-fat meals, and keeping track of hismedication. Many of Swayze's friends and costars have also given theactor support.
Rebecca Sapp, WireImage.com
"He'sa Texan -- very strong and very determined. And he has a wife whoadores him at his side. Theirs is a great, enduring love. It'sinspiring to all of us," Natasha Richardson, who co-starred with Swayzein 'Waking Up in Reno,' said.
Peter Kramer, AP
LiamNeeson recalled an incident when he and Swayze were on Broadwaytogether in 'Next of Kin'. "A few times he and Lisa would be chattingabout his early Broadway days when he was a dancer, and he'd suddenlystart dancing -- it was just like a piece of poetry. They'd just getup, and the two of them would dance. It was very beautiful, verymoving."
Andrew H. Walker, Getty Images
"Likeany great marriage, they seem to move together as one person. They'relike a single organism. She is a strong, strong woman -- very funny,very kind, very smart. They love each other and it's apparent. Thepartnership is for life," 'Road House' co-star Kelly Lynch described ofPatrick and his wife.
Steve Granitz, WireImage.com
TomCruise, who befriended Swayze on the set of 'The Outsiders,' said,"I've always known Patrick to be a good man, a fighter. We are allpulling for him and praying for a quick recovery."
Charley Gallay, Getty Images
Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer.
He had put on a remarkably brave face during his illness, 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 pain killing drugs while making "TheBeast" 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 a candid interview earlier this year. "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 "DirtyDancing." 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' ssexy (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 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 star redas a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Moore) - with great frustration and longing - through a psychic played by WhoopiGoldberg.
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.
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"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 day time talk show "TheView."
Over the last year, Swayze's name had been connected with countless death rumors on the cover of tabloid magazines. Swayze had been aggressive of fighting back against the claims of his failing health.
"It's amazing to me that the tabloids such as the National Enquirer print such negative stories about me and my health when there are so many positive things going on in my life right now. I've started a new chemotherapy and, once again, I am one of the lucky ones with pancreatic cancer that is responding well to the treatment," he told PEOPLE.
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," along side Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane.
Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grand view U.S.A." (for which healso provided choreography) and "Young blood," 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.
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 tooperate 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.
