Patrick Swayze dies at 57

I just saw this: Publicist: Patrick Swayze dies at 57 - Yahoo! News

Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into moviegoers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday 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 evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. Swayze died in Los Angeles, Wolf said, but declined to give further details.

Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer. He 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.

When i'd first heard pancreatic cancer, well we all know what that means. But he had such a positive attitude through it all, even if he knew that it was temporary. One thing that really pissed me off through it though were the tabloids, constantly having headline that he was on his deathbed. Could you imagine how hard that was for him and his family? How those so-called "photographers" and "reporters" live with themselves and sleep at night by doing what they did is beyond me.

I agree with you. As if it isn't difficult enough already for him and his family to deal with his illness and face death, some of the journalists and tabloids couldn't even leave that little time left.

One thing we all seem to agree on is that Patrick Swayze was one hell of a guy. We remember his ability to play both good character and bad with ever presaent sensitivity wrapped in certain machismo. An abilility to be unquestionably massculine no matter what role he played. Oddly enough, the thing I memember now while discussing his successes in film, is Patrick's ability to sing. He was an accomplished performer in every way and we will miss him.

R

Saw clips of "To Wong Foo" and "SNL" (the Chippendales skit) and laughed my arse off

Yeah, DD was good, but I especially liked Road House. I was just thinking of getting that DVD, too. :p

Re: the tabloids, they do tend to stir up sympathy to a point. True, they do it in a rotten way at times.

I actually met him way back about a thousand years ago when I was in collage. He used to come visit a relative who was living in my college dorm. We all (about 12 of us)sat under the colors of a California sunset smoked a joint and talked about life. He was sweet, cool, very real and totally uncomplicated. Loved his movies and admired the man. I hear he had no children and left a 10 million dollar trust to his wife. God Bless and God Speed - Somewhere I know he's dancing "like nobody's watching".

peace and namaste

Hppygr8ful