LUCIDMEDIA

He had the time of his life: Swayze dead at 57

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Tuesday, 15 September 2009 09:48

Patrick Swayze, star of Dirty Dancing, Ghost and Road House,died at his home in Los Angeles yesterday at the age of 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.

The actor had been fighting pancreatic cancer for nearly two years. When it was announced that he was getting treatment for the disease in March 2008, rumours were rampant that he had merely weeks to live, but his doctors, in speaking to the press, said that his prognosis was “considerably more optimistic" than that.

Swayze meanwhile soldiered on, filming the A&E series The Beast during which he refused to take painkillers because he felt they’d stymie his performance. The actor himself was not as optimistic about his odds as the medical professionals treating him and actually talked quite candidly about his diagnosis. "I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in 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."

The Texas-born, three time Golden Globe nominee trained as a dancer before becoming an actor on stage, screen and film. His breakthrough came in portraying Orry Main in the seminal miniseries North and South, which took place during the American Civil War. Two years later things really launched for Swayze playing the tough but sensitive dance instructor from the wrong side of the tracks in Dirty Dancing.

Dancing became an international box office smash, and Swayze has since been indelibly associated with it, not that he ever saw that as a burden. "I'm completely proud of it," Swayze recently told the Australian press. "It's been the cult-following movies that have really surprised me. That's been the real reason why my career has lasted so long."

Even bigger three years after that was the supernatural romance Ghost, where Swayze’s cross-the-spiritual-divide chemistry with Demi Moore had hearts swooning across North America in the Summer of 1990. The Righteous Brothers serenaded pottery scene became one of the most iconic movie moments in the history of the medium, finishing in the Top 20 on the American Film Institute’s list of America’s Greatest Love Stories. Swayze also enjoyed some moderate success as an action hero playing a truck stop martial artist in Road House and the object of Keanu Reeves’ vented frustration in Point Break.

Swayze began to pull away from the Hollywood grind in the early 90s telling the Daily Mail in 2005 that, "I got completely fed up with that Hollywood blockbuster mentality. […] I couldn't take it seriously any longer." He had a slight comeback in recent years thanks to acclaimed turn as motivational speaker Jim Cunningham in Donnie Darko, and celebrated appearances in musical theatre as part of the casts for the Broadway production of Chicago and Guys and Dolls in London’s West End.

Swayze is survived by his wife Lisa Niemi, a former dance student of his mother's. The couple married in 1975 and have no children.