{"id":6567,"date":"2009-09-15T02:32:42","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T01:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=6567"},"modified":"2009-09-15T06:30:21","modified_gmt":"2009-09-15T05:30:21","slug":"patrick-swayze-dies-aged-57","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2009\/09\/15\/patrick-swayze-dies-aged-57\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Swayze dies aged 57"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Patrick Swayze<\/a><\/strong> has passed away at the age of 57.<\/p>\n Although someone at BBC News<\/a> missed out the ‘Y’ in his name (see above), the\u00a0AP report<\/a>:<\/p>\n Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers’ hearts with “Dirty Dancing” and then broke them with “Ghost,” died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n No other details were given.<\/p>\n Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Swayze came to prominence in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders<\/a><\/strong> alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane. In the mid-80s he also starred in Red Dawn<\/a><\/strong>, Grandview U.S.A.<\/a><\/strong> and Youngblood<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n But he really found worldwide fame in 1987 with his performance as Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing<\/a><\/strong>. As the son of a choreographer with a background in musical theatre, the role was\u00a0tailor made\u00a0for him.<\/p>\n The coming-of-age romance also starred Jennifer Grey<\/a> as a young woman on holiday with her family who falls for Swayze’s dance instructor.<\/p>\n