He’s Like the Wind | Patrick Swayze Died

He has succumbed to pancreatic cancer

Patrick Swayze died, leaving behind a legacy that any entertainer would be proud to call their own. (Photo: commons.wikimedia.org)

Considering how the tabloids bandied it about, I was almost convinced that the whole issue with Patrick Swayze being seriously ill was a hoax. I was as likely to believe that Kirstie Alley had been exploded several times, only to be reconstituted by the powers of a miracle boy from Venus each time. But now I hear that Patrick Swayze has died, and it’s no hoax. He was 57 years old, and he died with family at his side.

I respect the man and his legend

Despite the fact that I enjoyed making fun of him for the movies in which he was a part, I recognized that Patrick Swayze was a talented man. First he was a dancer, but in all honesty, he was a performer. Movies like “Dirty Dancing,” “Ghost” and “Donnie Darko” helped create his legend, and all the “Point Breaks,” “Road Houses” and “To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmars” of the world couldn’t tear that down. His appearance on “Saturday Night Live” (as a Chippendale’s dancer and the object of affection for Hanz and Franz) indicated that he had the very healthy ability to laugh at himself. Even if he ever needed paycheck loans, I imagine he took it all in dancer’s stride. I admire him for that.

“A miracle dude”

According to the New York Times, Patrick Swayze considered himself to be a “miracle dude.” What else would you call yourself if a doctor told you that you only have months left to live, but you beat the odds and continued to work in films and television? Last October, he told the Times that the best way to remain positive when “statistics say you’re a dead man” is to “go to work.”

Yet he always maintained hope for recovery. As he told Barbara Walters in one of her specials, “I keep my heart and my soul and my spirit open to miracles; I want to live.”

He danced into our hearts in “Dirty Dancing”

After a series of television roles, Patrick Swayze worked his way to national prominence alongside Jennifer Grey in the film “Dirty Dancing.” This coming-of-age dance film helped build Swayze’s credentials as a romantic leading man. This culminated in his role in the supernatural romance “Ghost,” which was highly successful at the box office and won Whoopi Goldberg a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. As Swayze told the San Francisco Chronicle about his role in that film, “I needed to do something that will affect the audience in a positive way, make them feel better about their lives and appreciate what they have.”

Making us feel better about life

That’s the kind of example Patrick Swayze set for the world. Even before his well-publicized battle with cancer, he proved that adversity would keep him from achieving his goals. Despite being teased as a child for learning dance, he kept at it. He overcame a football injury and eventually worked his way up to New York’s Eliot Feld Ballet and prestigious Broadway roles in productions like “Grease” and “Chicago.”

Patrick Swayze made his film debut in 1979’s “Skatetown, U.S.A.”, a roller-disco movie with Scott Baio. He knew he had the looks and ability to make a career of such teen fluff, but Swayze wanted to be taken more seriously as an actor. Movies like “The Outsiders” and “Red Dawn,” as well as the TV miniseries “North and South” and series “Renegades” helped boost his stock just in time for his breakthrough roles in “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost.”

A better actor than critics gave him credit

For the critics, Patrick Swayze’s acting career has been something less than “pure adrenaline,” to quote a line from the bank-robbing surfer movie “Point Break.” However, I believe their criticism to be mostly unfair. No matter how outlandish the role (and playing a drag queen in “To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” certainly qualifies), Patrick Swayze approached it with energy and tremendous personal conviction. He never phoned in a performance, and his dancer’s grace always lent magnetism to the characters he played. If he’d been in a paycheck loans commercial, you wouldn’t have been able to take your eyes off the screen.

“I’m going to come out of left field”

Patrick Swayze and his wife Lisa cut a striking figure whenever they hit the red carpet. (Photo: commons.wikimedia.org)

That’s what Patrick Swayze told the Chicago Sun-Times back in 1989. People may have thought they had a fix on just what the actor was about, but Swayze would always manage to pull a surprise or two. I believe his guest host appearance on “Saturday Night Live” played a large role in shaping the public’s largely positive view of Swayze. He wasn’t afraid of detractors said of him; on the contrary, he used it as fuel. And he could definitely poke fun at himself. As he dances against a shirtless Chris Farley for a job as Chippendale’s beefcake, you believe this is the only thing between his budget moving on up and having to depend on paycheck loans to bridge the gap. Swayze’s movements in that legendary skit betray a sly sense of fun that I would like to believe defined the man. I wish I would have known him, if for no other reason than to discuss the finer points of “Road House.”

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