At the age of 57, another icon of my youth passes before his time.
"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.
Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer.
He had kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting "The Beast," an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot. It drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.
Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making "The Beast" because they would have taken the edge off his performance. He acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.
Swayze had the distinction of being both old time tough and suavely graceful at the same time. He handled his illness with class and basically flipped off the press who counted him out by starting up a new series.
My sisters and I can have entire conversations just based on dialog from "Dirty Dancing". And though he was best known for that movie and "Ghost", (can anyone ever hear "Unchained Melody" and not immediately think of him) he also made a huge mark with the under-rated "Red Dawn" and as Darry in the classic, "the Outsiders". He uttered three of the most memorable lines in movie history:
"Pain don't hurt." ("Roadhouse")
"Wolverines!" ("Red Dawn")
and the often imitated, but never duplicated,
"Nobody puts Baby in the corner."
Rest in peace, Patrick.
The love inside, you take it with you. See ya.
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