Patrick Swayze lost his two year battle with pancreatic cancer last night, passing away "peacefully" whilst surrounded by his family at his home in Houston. He was 57. As most have attested, there was two Patrick Swayze's, both equally as compelling as the other. In my personal experience - there was the Swayze my mum fell in love with, the lean built and tough guy dancing instructor Johnny Castle from Dirty Dancing or the murdered Sam Wheat in Ghost, who just wanted to communicate with his lover from the grave. For me, Swayze will always be the cover guy of the two VHS movies that were always on the top of my mum's video pile next to our old t.v. I always fondly remember a bus journey to Spain in 1992 when Ghost screened on the coach ride, and I remember her in floods of tears. Then there's the one I enjoyed from Road House, Point Break and Red Dawn. A man's man, the often no-nonsense taking Swayze, the coolest guy on screen for a big run in the 80's. He kind of took over where John Travolta left off, bursting onto the scene when Travolta started to fade in 1983. His first movie was Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders, the same landmark which also gave us Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe for the first time. My favourite late career Swayze was his role as the paedophile motivational speaker Jim Cunningham in Donnie Darko. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian has the best write up piece on Swayze so far.
DIRTY DANCING - THE TIME OF MY LIFE
GHOST
ROADHOUSE
Filmography
Film Year Film Role Notes 1979 Skatetown, U.S.A. Ace Johnson 1983 Uncommon Valor Kevin Scott The Outsiders Darrel "Darry" Curtis 1984 Red Dawn Jed Eckert Grandview, U.S.A. Ernie "Slam" Webster 1985 North and South Orry Main (miniseries) 1986 Youngblood Derek Sutton North and South, Book II Orry Main (miniseries) 1987 Dirty Dancing Johnny Castle Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Steel Dawn Nomad 1988 Tiger Warsaw Chuck "Tiger" Warsaw 1989 Next of Kin Truman Gates Nominated Razzie Award for Worst Actor (also for Road House) Road House Dalton Nominated Razzie Award for Worst Actor (also for Next of Kin) 1990 Ghost Sam Wheat Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated Saturn Award for Best Actor Saturday Night Live Guest Host, Oct. 27, 1990 Memorable for sketch with Chris Farley auditioning to be Chippendales dancers 1991 Point Break Bodhi Nominated MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Male 1992 City of Joy Max Lowe 1993 Father Hood Jack Charles 1994 Heaven & Hell: North and South, Book III Orry Main (miniseries) Uncredited; archive footage from previous episodes 1995 Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill Pecos Bill Three Wishes Jack McCloud To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar Vida Boheme Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1998 Letters from a Killer Race Darnell Black Dog Jack Crews 2000 Forever Lulu Ben Clifton 2001 Donnie Darko Jim Cunningham Green Dragon Gunnery Sergeant Jim Lance 2002 Waking Up in Reno Roy Kirkendall 2003 One Last Dance Travis MacPhearson Directed by his wife, Lisa 11:14 Frank 2004 Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights Dance class instructor (Prequel to Dirty Dancing) George and the Dragon Garth King Solomon's Mines Allan Quatermain 2005 Keeping Mum Lance Icon Jason Monk 2006 The Fox and the Hound 2 Cash (voice) (animated film) 2007 Jump! Richard Pressburger Christmas in Wonderland Wayne Saunders 2009 Powder Blue Velvet Larry The Beast Charles Barker (TV series)
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.