Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius pays tribute to iconic actor Patrick Swayze.
"Patrick you are loved by so many and your light will forever shine in all of our lives," twittered Ghost co-star
Demi Moore. "In the words of Sam to Molly, 'It's amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you.' I love and will miss you Patrick."
Patrick Wayne Swayze was born in Houston, Texas, on August 18, 1952. A choreographer who ran a local dance school, Patrick's mother Patsy taught her boy to dance before sending him to a pair of fancy New York City dancing academies to complete his physical education. Swayze's first professional dance gig was as Prince Charming in Disney on Parade, and following a successful run as Danny in the original Broadway production of Grease, he made his movie debut in disco comedy Skatetown, USA (1979).
Working his way towards stardom via such notable movie landmarks as
Francis Ford Coppola's ensemble classic The Outsiders (1983) and outrageous John Milius actioner Red Dawn (1984), Patrick hit the big time as Johnny Castle, the role he was born to play, in surprise hit Dirty Dancing (1987).
"When I think of him," said actress
Jennifer Grey, who shared the screen with Swayze in Dirty Dancing, "I think of being in his arms when we were kids, dancing, practicing the lift in the freezing lake and having a blast doing this tiny little movie we thought no one would ever see. Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace. My heart goes out to his wife and childhood sweetheart, Lisa Niemi, to his mum, Patsy, and to the rest of their family."
Three-times nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe, first for Dirty Dancing, then as a restless spirit in Ghost (1990) and finally as a golden-hearted drag queen in
To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar (1996), Swayze also enjoyed considerable success with the spectacularly violent Eighties favourite Road House (1989), surfer-dude cool crime thriller Point Break (1991) and inscrutable mystery
Donnie Darko (2001).
While working on the hard-hitting and sensationally well-received crime show The Beast, only one season of which was completed before he died, the actor revealed, in March last year, that he was suffering from cancer. "How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you're a dead man?" asked the star, who remained positive until the end. "You go to work."
"Patrick was a really good man, a funny man and one to whom I owe much that I can't ever repay," said another of Swayze's Ghost co-stars, Oscar-winner
Whoopi Goldberg, upon hearing the news of his passing. "I believe in Ghost's message, so he'll always be near."
A personable and gifted actor who had so much more to give than ultimately he was able to, Patrick Swayze will be sorely missed.
"I have a great deal of faith in faith," said Swayze, some time ago. "If you believe something strongly enough, it becomes true for you. I would like to believe that there's life after death, because if there isn't, why are we here? I don't believe that just flesh and bones can contain, from the point of view of physics, this very real recorded energy inside of us. Whether it's true or not, we need to believe it."