Lovely tribute from the Philly Inquirer for deceased actor Patrick Swayze. If only more LaLaLand celebrities could merit the following headline:
Patrick Sawyze: Not Hollywood's Greatest Actor, but Perhaps Its Nicest Guy
The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2009-09-15
Patrick Swayze, the two-fisted Texan who danced like a god, died Monday in Los Angeles after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.
"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 night by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.
There are great actors and there are great screen personalities. Swayze was the latter. His reputation rests on "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost," and what made them beloved was his gallantry. Quite simply, he radiated Galahad-like honor. "Patrick possessed a depth of nobility," said his "Point Break" director Kathryn Bigelow.
Even while undergoing chemotherapy, Swayze put in long hours on the television cable drama "The Beast" on A&E. When well-wishers inquired how he nurtured such a positive attitude despite a prognosis that claims 75 percent of patients within a year, the consummate professional crisply replied, "When the statistics say you're a dead man? You go to work."
To quote the phrase made famous by his distant relative, Timex pitchman John Cameron Swayze, throughout a lifetime of physical challenges, the actor took a licking and kept on ticking.
Along with Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Ralph Macchio, Swayze was cast in Francis Coppola's "The Outsiders," the 1983 teen-angst drama considered the first "Brat Pack" film. Although Swayze opted for neither the commercial path taken by Cruise nor the trailblazing one of Dillon, the late actor possessed a spark _ and a sparkle _ that few of his peers could match.
Even as a teenager, this firstborn son of a cowboy and a choreographer boasted a rugged grace, excelling both on the football gridiron and at the ballet barre. Like John Travolta, whose mother was also a choreographer, Swayze had swagger and sincerity.
But he wasn't one for locker-room bragging, which he disdained as "kill-that-guy" talk. Between that and the ballet lessons, he was frequently roughed up by the local bullies for being a sissy. Swayze followed the counsel of his mother, Patsy: "Take your ballet slippers outta your pocket and beat the stuffin' out of them" _ "them" being the bullies.
Though he didn't have much training as an actor, he registered as the stoic teenagers of "The Outsiders" and "Red Dawn" (1984). In the latter, made shortly after his father had died of a massive stroke at age 56, Swayze first wed physical strength with emotional sensitivity, the secret sauce in his best-loved roles.
After he turned his life around, the actor many called Hollywood's nicest guy was named People Magazine's sexiest man in 1991.
Swayze's family and fans (and who is not?) might find comfort in remembering "Point Break," in which he says, "It's not tragic to die doing what you love." Or "The Outsiders," where as the big brother counseling his baby bro, he says, "Just because you lose somebody, you don't stop living."
Besides his wife Lisa, he is survived by his mother, Patsy, and siblings Don, Sean and Bambi.
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