.
LATEST:
Actor Patrick Swayze, whose turn as a smoldering dance instructor in Dirty Dancing made him one of the iconic film stars of the 1980s, has died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 57.
Swayze, an actor and dancer who cemented his status as sex symbol opposite Demi Moore in the 1990 romance Ghost, died at his home.
Swayze became one of Hollywood’s top stars with 1987′s Dirty Dancing, which defied Hollywood expectations to become one of the most-watched movies of all time. .
Swayze was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly forms of the disease, in January 2008.
The Texas-born actor played the swaggering dance instructor Johnny Castle in the film opposite Jennifer Grey’s sheltered teenager Frances “Baby” Houseman, who becomes smitten with him while on vacation at a New York resort during the 1960s. Pancreatic cancer sufferers are only given a five percent chance of survival. He said at the time that the cancer had already spread to his liver.
The series was broadcast in America earlier this year.
But he vowed to fight the disease and had treatment with an experimental drug, surprising Hollywood by filming a new detective series for television called The Beast in which he played the lead role..
“I think everybody thought I was out of my mind . thinking I’m gonna pull off a TV show,” Swayze said in an interview in January 2009, adding that he was scared and angry at his diagnosis..
Dirty Dancing, which was made for a modest budget and almost scrapped by its studio, became a massive box-office hit, earning Golden Globe nominations for both stars and spawning the Oscar-winning hit single (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.
Swayze was working on a memoir with his wife of more than 30 years, Lisa Niemi, earlier this year.
Swayze co-wrote and performed the song She’s Like the Wind for the movie’s soundtrack, which went to No.
Producers did not have high hopes for the film but it reaped US$64 million at the US box office and US$214 million worldwide. The film remained widely popular more than two decades later and recently spawned a stage musical version. 3 on the pop music charts.