Font Size 
Patrick Swayze dies of cancer
Published on Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 08:06, Updated on Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 01:48 in Entertainment section
Tags: Patrick Swayze, Pancreatic Cancer , Los Angeles
Related Stories
Photogallery
 |  |
Los Angeles: Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into moviegoers' hearts with Dirty Dancing and then broke them with Ghost, died om Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.
"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully on Monday with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released on Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. Swayze died in Los Angeles, Wolf said, but declined to give further details.
Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer. He 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.
Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making The Beast because they would have taken the edge off his performance. The show 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.
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. Swayze acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.
"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."
C Thomas Howell, who co-starred with Swayze in The Outsiders, Grandview USA 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."
Other celebrities used Twitter to express condolences, and Dirty Dancing was the top trending topic for a while on Monday night, trailed by several other Swayze films.
Ashton Kutcher - whose wife, Demi Moore, co-starred with Swayze in Ghost wrote, "RIP P Swayze." Kutcher also linked to a YouTube clip of the actor poking fun at himself in a classic Saturday Night Live sketch, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent, and frighteningly shirtless, Chris Farley.
And Larry King wrote, "Patrick Swayze was a wonderful actor and a terrific guy. He put his heart in everything. He was an extraordinary fighter in his battle w Cancer." King added that he'd do a tribute to Swayze on his CNN program on Tuesday night.
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.
[ Single Page View ]
| Ads by Google |
| Related Ads: | |
Read Comment | Post Comment
The AP reports may forget to mention the 1992 movie, "The city of joy". The movie was 10 times better
Read Comment
Read more comment »