Patrick Swayze, 1952 - 2009

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Patrick Swayze, 1952 - 2009

Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday after a 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 released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.

Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer. Read more ...

[pingtheduck]

One of my favorite Patrick Swayze moments was with Chris Farley

YouTube - Chris Farley chippendales original skit

YouTube - Chris Farley chippendales original skit

[RanchHQ]

FROM: Klavan On The Culture Patrick Swayze: Dude
September 15th, 2009 9:24 am
Patrick Swayze: Dude

Not too many years ago, my wife and kids were out of town for a week so I, of course, instantaneously de-evolved into a primitive state, three days growth, moth-eaten t-shirt, visible body odor, the whole deal. And one night, I threw together a sandwich of, I don’t know, live grubs and buffalo dung or something, and wandered into the television room to see what was on. And there was Road House, the kick-ass action flick starring Patrick Swayze. And I figured, yeah, I’d watch fifteen minutes of that while I scarfed my food. Predictably, I couldn’t turn it off and watched the whole thing.

Okay, so then a day passes, Great Fire crosses sky, Big Dark sinks over valley, I toss together a sandwich of dinosaur tongue and grass or whatever. Wander into the television room to see what’s on – and hey, what do you know, there’s Road House, the kick-ass action flick starring Patrick Swayze! And I figure I’ll watch fifteen minutes of that while I eat… and, of course, I couldn’t turn it off again and watched the whole damn thing again!

Patrick Swayze wasn’t a great actor and he wasn’t a great movie star, but he was something even rarer in today’s stable of Hollywood actors. He was a dude! And he made good dude films. Road House, Point Break, Red Dawn, Black Dog. Even when he made chick flicks like Ghost and Dirty Dancing, they were more or less dude friendly because they had a dude in them – as opposed to those so-called romantic comedies where some hapless wimp always has to apologize for being male in the end so he can live sheepishly ever after with the girl of his dreams.

Swayze was just a B-movie guy, I guess, but he was still a much cooler presence than most of today’s top-line stars. Plus, in Road House, he uttered the line, “Pain don’t hurt,” an immortal piece of movie dialogue if ever there was one.

Anyway, I rarely watch any movie more than once, but I’ll watch Road House and Point Break any old time. Swayze died of cancer yesterday at 57 and I was sorry to hear it. I hope and trust he’s in dude heaven.

I'll second that, except for the live grub deal.

[Matthew]

Point Break and Red Dawn were good movies, but how can you talk about Swayze movies and not mention The Outsiders? Loved that movie.

[Birdieman]

Stay Golden, Patrick.

[Maximus]

Forget about Dirty Dancing, or Ghost. Point Break is one of my top 20 movies. The Outsiders was good too.