CHICAGO – “Dirty Dancing,” “Ghost,” film, TV and dance icon Patrick Swayze died on Sept. 14, 2009 at 57 after a 1.5-year public battle with pancreatic cancer. He was in his Los Angeles home beside friends and family.
The legendary actor made no secret of his condition, wrote a memoir with his wife since he was diagnosed in Jan. 2008 and braved through filming of the TV crime drama “The Beast” while refusing to ingest painkillers so as not to derail his performance. He was noticeably thinner on “The Beast” and shooting was difficult on Swayze physically, but he persisted with his craft nonetheless.
In addition to “The Beast” as Swayze’s most recent and last project, he also starred in “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” “Power Blue,” “One Last Dance,” “Donnie Darko,” “Point Break,” “The Outsiders,” “Red Dawn,” “Road House,” “Ghost,” “Dirty Dancing,” “Youngblood” and “Skatetown, U.S.A.”. Living for 18 months with this extremely terminal form of cancer was rare, experts say.
“If you were to look at statistics, the prognosis that is given to most patients with metastatic cancer is usually three to six months,” Dr. Jeffrey Hardacre, an assistant professor of surgery at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and an attending surgeon at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, said in an interview with FOXNews.com on Monday.
The Houston-born Patrick Swayze, who is part Apache, married Lisa Niemi in 1975 and is the older brother of Don Swayze. Patrick Swayze met Lisa Niemi at the age of 19 when she was 15 while she attended dance lessons with Patsy Swayze (Patrick’s mother, who was a dance instructor). Patrick Wayne Swayze’s father, Jesse Wayne Swayze, died of a heart attack in 1982.
Swayze is survived by his wife of 34 years. In memoriam of Patrick Swayze, who lived from 1952 to 2009, we’ll leave you with this personal quote: “Good-looking people turn me off. Myself included.”
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Michael Jackson dies at 50 on June 25, 2009. [19]
Paul Newman dies at 83 on Sept. 28, 2008. [20]
John Hughes dies at 59 on Aug. 6, 2009. [21]
Farrah Fawcett dies at 62 on June 25, 2009. [22]
Sydney Pollack dies at 73 on May 26, 2008. [23]
George Carlin dies at 71 on June 23, 2008. [24]
Bernie Mac dies at 50 on Aug. 9, 2008. [25]
Anthony Minghella dies at 54 on March 18, 2008. [26]
Charlton Heston dies at 84 on April 6, 2008. [27]
Deborah Kerr dies at 86 on Oct. 18, 2007. [28]
Michael Crichton dies at 66 on Nov. 5, 2008. [29]
Don LaFontaine dies at 66 on Sept. 4, 2008. [30]
Stan Winston dies at 62 on June 16, 2008. [31]
Suzanne Pleshette dies at 70 on Jan. 20, 2008. [32]
Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90 on March 19, 2008. [33]
Jett Travolta dies at 16 on Jan. 3, 2009. [34]
 [35] | By ADAM FENDELMAN [36] |
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