Patrick Swayze died of cancer, aged 57. The Washington Post said:
While undergoing chemotherapy for his cancer, which was diagnosed last year, he received good reviews for his gritty portrayal of an undercover FBI agent in “The Beast” (2009), a drama series for the A&E cable network. Mr. Swayze missed only one day of work while filming the series. “One thing I’m not going to do is chase staying alive,” he told interviewer Barbara Walters at the time. “You spend so much time chasing staying alive, you won’t live.”
The final scene of one his movies, Point Break was filmed at Bell’s Beach in Australia in 1991. In that movie, the character he played, Bodhi, faced the waves rather than surrender to the Feds. Now he played the Feds before taking to the waves. Well, Bell’s Beach is still there.
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One of the most endearing scenes of Patrick Swayze was his performance alongside Chris Farley in the “Chippendales Sketch”. Anybody who can laugh at themselves can’t be all bad. God speed Bodhi.
Together again at last -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RajNvJ3bCU
great catch, A.M.
WOLVERINES!
Damn, he’g gone now. Patrick Swayze was alternatively tough, strong, sexy, and nice. He was one Hollywood guy who could kick ass, smooth-talk the ladies, and look good doing it either way. Not many guys like him left in Hollywood, more’s the pity. He left us too soon….
Yes, Point Break and Road House!
It won’t be the same without the Swayz.
God speed.
Dude was one of the very few celebrities in Hollywood who knew how to keep a marriage together. On that basis alone, he was one of my favorites. Add in Red Dawn, Road House, Point Break, Dirty Dancing and the rest, and he was irreplaceable in my personal pantheon of heroes.
he had a certain gutsiness about him as a person that was pretty definite and somehow showed up onscreen.
(this is pretty good–“Red Dawn” memorable lines)
Swayze never had a bad thing to say about anyone. He never believed his own press –the way most celebs do– thinking movie stars are demigods. He made alot of fun, shoot-em-up guy flicks and never took the industry or himself too seriously. It killed me to see the way those rag tabloids sent him off… by publishing those painful photos of him emaciated from chemo. Just reminds me how grotesque the tabloids really are.
Despite it all, he walked that long goodbye with courage and dignity. It would be fitting to see the Red Dawn remake dedicated to him.
Surf’s Up!
If we have Bell’s, the Pipeline, and Marshall’s here on earth (among others too numerous to mention), can you imagine heaven?
May the Lord bless him and keep him, and angels sing him to his rest. . .
Don’t forget “The Outsiders”. It might not have been his biggest role, but it would not have been the same movie without him.
Dirty Dancing star (and Texas native) PATRICK SWAYZE has died at age 57…
Here was someone man enough to dance ballet, figure-skate in a Disney ice show, croon the sap-tastic hit single “She’s Like the Wind” and make a cornball line like “No one puts Baby in the corner” (from Dirty Dancing) go down in history.
It was reported in February 2008 that Swayze had “a gastrointestinal procedure” at the Stanford University Medical Center in California and was “doing fine.” Later, his publicist confirmed that he was diagnosed in January with pancreatic cancer and was having chemotherapy at the university’s cancer center in Palo Alto. Swayze and his wife of 33 years, dancer Lisa Niemi, who both have pilot’s licenses, would fly there in their own Beechcraft.
Swayze, who earned People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive title in 1991, was tough enough to endure aggressive treatment and work six-day weeks to film 13 episodes of “The Beast”, an A&E series that premiered Jan. 15. “I do find myself, at the end of the day, riding home sort of catching myself with a smile on my face,” Swayze told The New York Times when discussing the series. “I’m proud of what I’m doing.”
weSwinger:
And Jaws:
Mike Parsons, Billabong Surf Odyssey.
Tow-in surf contest North Shore Maui (Jaws)
City of Joy.
Ah, the mystery of cancer. Its difficult to imagine someone not only in the best of health, through workouts and dancing, but a visual projection of it, being brought down by it.
He may or may not have once been a smoker (most dancers are, it contributes to their focus, metabolically), but still we are not much further along in understanding its cause, despite years of research.
Frankly I’m cynical, I don’t think they want to find a cure; the treatment is the same as it was fifty years ago.
Rest in Peace, good Texan, you do us proud.
Pancreatic cancer is, for 99%, a death sentence.
My Grandmother, one of my best friends (at age 32), and yet another close friend (at age 40) all died within 9 months of the diagnosis.
None smoked, or did anything otherwise that could’ve been perceived as ‘cancer causing’.
Might as well been from out of the blue.
Pancreatic cancer and ALS are two of the most awful ways to go, and are also two of the most under-funded causes, especially when compared to AIDS, for example.
I hate the torture of chemotherapy and radiation that they put victims through before their ultimate death. I really question whether living a few more months with projectile vomiting and diarrhea is preferrable to a nice morphine-induced purple haze as you ease on over to the other side.
Hard to believe that he was 57. Performances such as Point Break (a cracking film, imho) are memorable for the energy he radiates. Tough, and faithful. Death by cancer, such a sad injustice.
Doug: Thanks. These guys truly get a foretaste of heaven. The Blue-Ray of “Step Into Liquid” loops around on my home video. The beauty of surfing is astonishing.
17 NahnCee. My late sister agreed with you: 5 years after winning a first bout with breast cancer, was invited to a rematch and declined.
Dear Lord, I miss her terribly still. May she rest in peace. Amen.
weSwinger #20 — your comment is astonishing for its combination of brevity and impact. i hope your sister is resting in peace.
“I’m not gonna paddle to New Zealand!”
A scene in Red Dawn: around the campfire after having seen many loved ones killed, the kids are near breakdown when Patrick’s character Jed hollers at them,
“DON’T CRY! HOLD IT IN! Let it turn to something else. Let it turn. Let it TURN!”
–what a great line –
17 NahnCee, a dear friend of mine endured chemo for lung cancer, and suffered every terrible side effect it can deliver (except she didn’t lose her hair.) I know that if she had known what she was looking at, she would have gone for your idea of the purple haze of morphine.
On the other hand, it seems that Patrick Swayze wanted to live as long as he could, and do that show and even make it to the 2 year mark. He WAS willing to do the suffering for that extra (almost) 2 years.
It is a wonderful world that he had that choice. And you know what? There will come a time when pancreatic cancer is not the death knell it is for us today.
I write a blog about the movie Dirty Dancing. Click on my name, above.