Patrick Swayze

Patrick Swayze

Patrick Swayze is a well-known actor, who starred in Dirty Dancing and Ghost and he has been fighting with pancreatic cancer for the last 20 months. Annett Wolf, Patrick Swayze’s publicist, told to the press that Mr. Swayze died on Monday with family on his side. Swayze, 57, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2008 and the doctors only gave him 6 months to live, though he survived for another 14 months.

After he survived the 6 months the doctors predicted, he was planning to play in “The Beast”, a drama series for A&E and already filmed a season. “How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you’re a dead man?” he said to Bill Carter of The New York Times last October. “You go to work.”

Patrick Swayze had the role of an undercover F.B.I. agent and had the premiere in January. Just before the series began, Patrick Swayze has been invited on ABC to Barbara Walters Special and he talked about his illness, where he said: “I keep my heart and my soul and my spirit open to miracles.” Unfortunately, people didn’t even know it’s correct name, because a lot of them are searching for Patrick Swazy, which is sad.

Patrick Swayze died

Patrick Swayze died

The news as it first came over the AP wire was "Patrick Swayze at 57": they'd forgotten to put the "died" part in the headline. Given that we all know that Swayze had been battling with pancreatic cancer for a couple of years (when the prognosis is usually less than 6 months) there wasn't that much surprise when the headline in its next incarnation was "Patrick Swayze died at 57". The British newspapers have been giving huge coverage to this news of Patrick Swayze's death from pancreatic cancer. The Telegraph collected quotes from those who knew him:

Moore's husband, Ashton Kutcher, tweeted: "RIP P Swayze". (One might want to make a note about Demi Moore's Twitter there. We usually use the past tense about those, like Swayze, who have died, not the present. And, err, that particular sentiment, shouldn't it have been said to Patrick Swayze while he was alive? As for Ashton Kuchner's Twitter: are there really a million people signed up to follow such pearls of wisdom as might come from a bookend?) Days ago it was reported he had left hospital to be at home with his wife, Lisa Niemi, his childhood sweetheart from Houston.

The Times gives him a full obituary: Patrick Swayze was in his mid-thirties when he became an overnight sensation in 1987 with the romantic dance movie Dirty Dancing, in which he played the dance instructor Johnny Castle, and Jennifer Grey was his pupil Baby. The film cost $5 million and was intended primarily for video, but it grossed more than $200 million worldwide and was one of the biggest hits of the year.