Erika E
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Patrick Swayze 1952 - 2009
Patrick Swayze tribute
“Nobody puts Baby in the corner!” If Patrick Wayne Swayze had never made another film, his role as dance instructor Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing would guarantee him a place in celluloid history. The 1987 sleeper hit wasn’t the only one of his pictures to touch a chord, though, his follow-up role as the murdered Sam Wheat looking out for Demi Moore from beyond the grave in 1990’s Ghost ensuring he – and a certain scene involving a pottery wheel and the Righteous Brothers’ song Unchained Melody – will always occupy a special place in our collective hearts.
Born in 1952, the young Patrick learned to dance at his mother’s knee – or, to be more accurate, at the dance school Patsy Swayze ran in their home town of Houston, Texas. (It was there he met Lisa Niemi, a fellow student whom he would eventually marry in 1975.) By the time he left high school, however, Patrick was also an accomplished ice skater and gymnast, talents that served him well when he landed his first professional job in a travelling production of Disney on Parade. Indeed, had an old knee injury that he sustained playing high-school football not flared up, he might have spent his whole life as a hoofer.
Instead he turned to acting, landing the lead role of Danny Zuko in the Broadway run of Grease before making his big-screen debut in 1979 teen comedy Skatetown, USA. To be fair Swayze’s first film roles were hardly distinguished, though he did make an impression in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 ensemble work The Outsiders and fending off a Soviet invasion in 1984’s Red Dawn. It was his role in TV mini-series North and South that really made his name, however, paving the way for the global phenomenon that was Dirty Dancing.
Action roles in Road House and Next of Kin consolidated his celebrity before he once again became the “king of the sleepers” with Ghost. With the exception of cult thriller Point Break, though, the 1990s were a lean time for the actor, mostly due to a number of personal setbacks – the death of his sister, a horse riding accident that left him with two broken legs – that saw him tumble into alcoholism. (“The loneliness of fame was messing with my head,” he admitted in a 2004 interview. “Once you’ve been famous for a while and told your story, it can sound like a lie.”)
With the new millennium, though, came fresh opportunities: a sinister role in cult hit Donnie Darko, a return to Broadway in the musical Chicago and a West End debut in Guys and Dolls. In 2008, though, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a virulent form of the disease with only a 5% survival rate. Swayze tackled his illness head on, undergoing treatment while bravely pressing on with his latest TV role in cable show The Beast. In January 2009, however, he conceded he might only have two years left – a prediction, sadly, we now know was too optimistic.
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I loved Dirty Dancing, and Ghost.
What a sad loss, but I hope that he now rests in peace and is pain free. Godspeed Patrick Swayze.
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15/Sep/09, 12:38 pm
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10 4
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What a loss to the industy. I loved Ghost. Sad.
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15/Sep/09, 6:45 pm
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BigCHiPsFan
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He put in a valiant fight, and had lots of courage. My heart goes out to his wife and family.
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16/Sep/09, 12:01 am
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Nicola Roberts
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Very Sad news, I will miss him. I liked him a lot.
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16/Sep/09, 11:16 am
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Mrs Baker
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Sad loss to us all
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18/Sep/09, 8:56 pm
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Zapit3
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Patrick Swayze 1952 - 2009
It was very sad news when I heard of his death. I do believe that my two favorite movies of his were Ghost and Dirty Dancing. I'll never forget the end of Dirty Dancing. It is forever etched in my memory.
He will be greatly missed. My thoughts and  ers go out to his family and I am happy that he is no longer suffering. Rest in peace, Patrick.
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19/Sep/09, 4:01 pm
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10 4
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Patrick Swayze 1952 - 2009
I loved Dirty Dancing. I cried when I heard he had died.
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19/Sep/09, 6:32 pm
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