Screen Star Patrick Swayze Dies at 57

Patrick Swayze, the charismatic dancer-turned-actor who achieved fame in the movies Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and recently starred in the A&E television drama The Beast, died Monday, September 14, 2009, following a long, highly public, battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

Initially diagnosed with cancer in June of 2008, Swayze outlived his prognosis and filmed a full season of The Beast, in which he played an FBI agent, while continuing to undergo treatment.

Shortly after the series premiered Swayze reportedly contracted pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital. Although his condition fluctuated, he maintained an upbeat, philosophical attitude and inspired many with the way he handled his plight.

The son of an engineer father and a dance instructor mother, Swayze was born in Houston, Texas, on August 18, 1952. He began dancing as a child, and also excelled at sports. After a stint in community college, he moved to New York to study dance, and became a member of Eliot Feld Ballet.

In 1975, Swayze made his Broadway debut as a dancer in Goodtime Charley. He also appeared in the original Broadway production of Grease, and eventually took over the lead role of Danny Zucko.

He began to score small roles in movies and in television in the late 1970s and gradually draw attention with more substantial parts in films like The Outsiders, which was cast with several other soon-to-be-famous newcomers, including Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe.

After distinguishing himself as a Southern soldier in the miniseries North and South and North and South, Book II, Swayze became a star in 1987 as Johnny Castle, a working-class dance instructor whose salt-of-the-earth magnetism captivates teenager Frances “Baby” Houseman, played Jennifer Grey, during a summer at a Catskills resort in Dirty Dancing.

Three years later, in Ghost, he portrayed a Manhattan banker who, after he is murdered by a business associate, communicates with his wife, played by Demi Moore, through an eccentric psychic, played by Whoopi Godberg.

Other notable movies include the action dramas Road House and Point Break, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, in which he, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo played a trio of drag queens.

His other television credits include episodes of M*A*S*H and Amazing Stories and a memorable outing as host of Saturday Night Live in which he and Chris Farley performed a sketch in which they played aspiring Chippendale's dancers.

He is survived by his wife, mother, two brothers and a sister.