RIP Patrick Swayze / passes away from Pancreatic Cancer

[MuffyBee]

Patrick Swayze - Writing Memoir with His Wife     
Posted: 6:36 AM Feb 6, 2009
Last Updated: 6:36 AM Feb 6, 2009
Reporter: Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Patrick Swayze says, "aside from the sheer pleasure" of writing his memoir, "if people happen to garner inspiration from it, or incentive, or find a new way to love, it would be wonderful." Swayze and his wife will be writing what their publisher says, is a "deeply personal memoir" which will come out in the fall. It'll include Swayze's childhood, career and long marriage. And, it'll include his fight against pancreatic cancer. Swayze says he'll write from his heart.

http://www.kbtx.com/thebuzz/headlines/39195717.html

[2NJSons_Mom]

Dancing' star Patrick Swayze dies at 57


        
 In this Nov. 28, 2005 file photo, actress Patrick Swayze, right, accompanied by his wife Lisa …

 Slideshow:Patrick Swayze dies at 57 9 mins ago


LOS ANGELES – 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.

"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. No other details were given.

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

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.

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.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.

A coming-of-age romance starring Jennifer Grey as an idealistic young woman on vacation with her family and Swayze as the Catskills resort's sexy (and much older) dance instructor, the film made great use of both his grace on his feet and his muscular physique.

It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," stage productions and a sequel, 2004's "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," in which he made a cameo.

Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad "She's Like the Wind," inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

And it allowed him to poke fun at himself on a "Saturday Night Live" episode, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent — and frighteningly shirtless — Chris Farley.

A major crowdpleaser, the film drew only mixed reviews from critics, though Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, "Given the limitations of his role, that of a poor but handsome sex-object abused by the rich women at Kellerman's Mountain House, Mr. Swayze is also good. ... He's at his best — as is the movie — when he's dancing."

Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action flick "Road House," in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar. But it was his performance in 1990's "Ghost" that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side. He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Demi Moore) — with great frustration and longing — through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.

Why did he want the part so badly? "It made me cry four or five times," he said of Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.

"Ghost" provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn't have won if it weren't for Swayze.

"When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick," Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."

Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.

His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.

"I couldn't get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho," he told the AP then. But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced "To Wong Foo," Spielberg didn't recognize him.

Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane. Swayze played Darrel "Dary" Curtis, the oldest of three wayward brothers — and essentially the father figure — in a poor family in small-town Oklahoma.

Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grandview U.S.A." (for which he also provided choreography) and "Youngblood," once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.

In the '90s, he made such eclectic films as "Point Break" (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western "Tall Tale" (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill. He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse. In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko," and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with "Chicago"; 2006 found him in the musical "Guys and Dolls" in London.

Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."

He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease." But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.

Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie "Skatetown, U.S.A." The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.

Swayze had a couple of movies in the works when his diagnosis was announced, including the drama "Powder Blue," starring Jessica Biel, Forest Whitaker and his younger brother, Don, which was scheduled for release this year.

Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.

Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center, People magazine reported in a cover story.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_swayze

[Cappuccino]

Patrick Swayze Dies of Pancreatic Cancer at 57



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.

"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. No other details were given.

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

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.

PHOTOS: Click here to see photos of Patrick Swayze

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.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.

A coming-of-age romance starring Jennifer Grey as an idealistic young woman on vacation with her family and Swayze as the Catskills resort's sexy (and much older) dance instructor, the film made great use of both his grace on his feet and his muscular physique.

It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," stage productions and a sequel, 2004's "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," in which he made a cameo.

Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad "She's Like the Wind," inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

And it allowed him to poke fun at himself on a "Saturday Night Live" episode, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent -- and frighteningly shirtless -- Chris Farley.

A major crowdpleaser, the film drew only mixed reviews from critics, though Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, "Given the limitations of his role, that of a poor but handsome sex-object abused by the rich women at Kellerman's Mountain House, Mr. Swayze is also good. ... He's at his best -- as is the movie -- when he's dancing."

Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action flick "Road House," in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar. But it was his performance in 1990's "Ghost" that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side. He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Demi Moore) -- with great frustration and longing -- through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.

Why did he want the part so badly? "It made me cry four or five times," he said of Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.

"Ghost" provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn't have won if it weren't for Swayze.

"When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick," Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."

Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.

His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.

"I couldn't get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho," he told the AP then. But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced "To Wong Foo," Spielberg didn't recognize him.

Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane. Swayze played Darrel "Dary" Curtis, the oldest of three wayward brothers -- and essentially the father figure -- in a poor family in small-town Oklahoma.

Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grandview U.S.A." (for which he also provided choreography) and "Youngblood," once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.

In the '90s, he made such eclectic films as "Point Break" (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western "Tall Tale" (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill. He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse. In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko," and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with "Chicago"; 2006 found him in the musical "Guys and Dolls" in London.

Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."

He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease." But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.

Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie "Skatetown, U.S.A." The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.

Swayze had a couple of movies in the works when his diagnosis was announced, including the drama "Powder Blue," starring Jessica Biel, Forest Whitaker and his younger brother, Don, which was scheduled for release this year.

Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.

Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center, People magazine reported in a cover story.

From a quote from Dirty dancing...."No one will put 'Patrick" in a corner"....he will always be remembered.   RIP

[Cappuccino]

Didnt see this posted - you can delete the thread started about his passing...sigh

[texasmom]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/14/patrick.swayze/

Patrick Swayze dies after cancer battle


LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Patrick Swayze, whose good looks and sympathetic performances in films such as "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost," made him a romantic idol to millions, has died, his publicist told CNN affiliate KTLA. Swayze was 57.

Swayze died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. His doctor, Dr. George Fisher, revealed in early March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from the disease.

Swayze "passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," his publicist, Annett Wolf, said a statement released Monday evening, according to KTLA.

Most recently, Swayze starred in A&E Network's "The Beast," which debuted in January. He agreed to take the starring role of an undercover FBI agent before his diagnosis. The network agreed to shoot an entire season of the show after Swayze responded well to his cancer treatment.

In an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters in January, Swayze said his work on that show was exhausting, requiring 12 hour workdays in Chicago, Illinois, doing his own stunts. But he said the show's character "just felt right for my soul."

"If I leave this Earth, I want to leave this Earth just knowing I've tried to give something back and tried to do something worthwhile with myself," Swayze told Walters, when asked why he decided to do the show. "And that keeps me going, that gets me up in the morning. My work ... is my legacy."



http://www.smh.com.au/world/patrick-swayze-lived-his-life-for-the-moment-20090915-fohv.html

Patrick Swayze: lived his life for the moment



September 15, 2009 - 11:02AM


Patrick Swayze has died
'
Dirty Dancing' actor Patrick Swayze has died. His top career as an actor, singer and dancer all began with a sports injury.

Patrick Swayze, the ruggedly handsome actor and classically trained dancer who shot to stardom in two hit romantic films, Dirty Dancing and Ghost, has died. He was 57.

Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer early in 2008 and went on to film a final television series, the police drama The Beast, while undergoing chemotherapy. A publicist for Swayze confirmed the death of the actor, the Associated Press reported today.

Swayze lived on a ranch outside Los Angeles with his wife, Lisa Niemi, a professional dancer.


Patrick Swayze ... lived for the moment.
Known almost as much for his many flops as his hits, Swayze in recent years expended as much effort on stage musicals as on movies. His ascent to stardom, though, was born of those two blockbuster movies.

Dirty Dancing (1987) and Ghost (1990) both made the American Film Institute's 2007 list of the 100 greatest love stories in US movie history - Ghost in 19th place, "Dirty Dancing" in 93rd.

Dirty Dancing, a surprise hit, showcased Swayze's acting and dancing skills. He played Johnny Castle, a rebellious dance pro at a Catskills resort who wins the affections of a young and innocent guest, "Baby" Houseman, played by Jennifer Grey.

Their climatic dance routine, performed to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," became a celebrated movie moment. Another of the movie's songs, "She's Like the Wind," was co-written and sung by Swayze.

In Ghost, Swayze played an investment banker who returns as an apparition, determined to protect his girlfriend (Demi Moore), after he is murdered in a scheme concocted by his business partner. His character, Sam Wheat, finds an indispensable ally in a spiritual adviser (Whoopi Goldberg) who is shocked to learn she has actual abilities beyond conning her clients.

Oscar Nominations

"Ghost was about living your life for the moment, because that's all you've got," Swayze told People magazine in 1990. "If you don't communicate with the people you love, you set yourself up for incredible pain if you lose them."

Ghost earned five Academy Award nominations, including one for best picture, and won two awards, for supporting actress (Goldberg) and writing.

People selected Swayze as "Sexiest Man Alive" for 1991. "He's one Hollywood hunk whose image has always been greater than the sum of his (sometimes awful) movie parts," the magazine wrote.

It described Swayze, then 39, as "both a woman's fantasy and a man's man".

Patrick Wayne Swayze was born August 18, 1952, in Houston, one of four children in an Irish-American family. He was inspired to try ballet at a young age by his mother, Patsy, a dance teacher and choreographer. His father, Jesse, an engineer, died in 1982.

His mother told Britain's the Sunday Mail in a 1995 interview that young Patrick, an accomplished athlete in boxing, wrestling and football, still endured ribbing when he took up ballet, as well as violin.

Five classmates in particular would rough him up, Patsy said: "He went to the sports coach and arranged to fight them one by one in the gym. He beat them all."

Swayze attended San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas, on a gymnastics scholarship but left before graduating. He toured with "Disney on Parade", playing the role of Prince Charming, then danced with the Buffalo Ballet Company before landing in New York in 1972.

He performed and studied with the Joffrey and Harkness ballet companies, then joined the Eliot Feld Ballet as its principal dancer.

"When I came to New York I was unique in that I looked like a man onstage," he told People in 1984. "I had 19-inch arms. I was the Godzilla of ballet."

In 1978 he took over the lead role of Danny Zuko in Grease on Broadway. Moving to Hollywood, California, he made his film debut in Skatetown, USA (1979), billed as a "rock and roller disco movie".

In Red Dawn (1984), Swayze starred as a leader of a group of Colorado teenagers who organise resistance to a Russian invasion of the US.

He played Orry Main, a Southern planter, in the highly rated 1985 television miniseries North and South.

Between Dirty Dancing and Ghost, Swayze starred as the head bouncer in a rough bar in Road House (1989), a widely panned film that became a cult hit. He played the leader of a gang of surfers in Point Break (1991), which also starred Keanu Reeves.

Swayze was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), in which he played a drag queen.

Swayze married Niemi, a dancer he met in one of his mother's classes, in 1975. The husband-and-wife team produced and starred in a music-and-dance movie, One Last Dance (2003), which Niemi wrote. Swayze said he hoped to prod movie studios to make more musicals.

Swayze generally turned down big roles after Ghost, including a proposed Dirty Dancing sequel that would have earned him a reported $6 million.

"For a while, I got sucked into that whole blockbuster mentality, where you're just living for the box office figures and selling your soul to a machine," he told the London Evening Standard in 2006.

He did agree to a cameo appearance as a dance instructor in the poorly received Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004).

On stage, Swayze starred as Billy Flynn in a Los Angeles production of Chicago in 2004 and, on London's West End in 2006, as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls.

Swayze, who overcame alcoholism in the late 1980s and said he was still trying to quit smoking as of 2004, retreated to a cowboy's mountain life between movies. A 1997 horseback-riding accident resulted in two broken legs and a seriously injured shoulder.

[Nut44x4]

It's ok. I'll merge and change title.

[klaasend]

I just loved Patrick Swayze as an actor.

R.I.P Patrick

[2NJSons_Mom]

I had the time of my life....final dance....embedding disabled...so here is the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo

    

[2NJSons_Mom]

Barbara Walters is supposed to have something later today....Tuesday night...about Patrick.....it may just be a repeat of her earlier interview when he was first diagnosed....

[texasmom]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/FlvYoD1RXWA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/FlvYoD1RXWA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;</a>

[texasmom]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y0TWOttkVo&feature=related

Patrick Swayze & Wife (Lisa Nieme) Dancing At World Music Awards 1994

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/7Y0TWOttkVo&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/7Y0TWOttkVo&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;</a>

My prayers are with Patrick's wife, Lisa, and all of his loved ones.

Rest in peace, Patrick; we'll never forget you!

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,550188,00.html
Doctor: Actor Patrick Swayze Defied the Odds in Many Ways

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
By Karlie Pouliot

 After a very long, public battle with pancreatic cancer, actor Patrick Swayze died at home Monday with his family and friends at his side. He was 57.

Swayze, who was diagnosed in January 2008, defied the odds in many ways – living for more than a year-and-a-half with this extremely deadly form of cancer. During that time, he put together a memoir with his wife and even started filming the new crime drama “The Beast,” in which he refused to take painkillers because he was worried it would affect his performance.

“If you were to look at statistics — the prognosis that is given to most patients with metastatic cancer is usually three to six months,” Dr. Jeffrey Hardacre, assistant professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and attending surgeon at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, told FOXNews.com.
“It certainly has been described for people to live longer than a year — but this is outside of the norm. Most people with metastatic pancreatic cancer will not live longer than a year,” he said.

Most pancreatic cancer cases are asymptomatic, meaning patients rarely exhibit symptoms of an illness until it's too late to stop its spread.

“There are a couple of things about pancreatic cancer and one of them is that about 50 percent of patients will already be at the metastatic stage of the disease when they show the first symptoms,” Hardacre said. “And that means it has spread to other organs.”

If that’s the case, there are several courses of treatment that can help control symptoms -- but that’s about as far as it goes.

“Most patients with this cancer would receive chemotherapy either alone or with a combo of medications as a first line treatment,” Hardacre said. “But the effectiveness as far as prolonging survival is not that dramatic — but the treatment does help improve symptoms such as pain, fatigue, weight loss.”

The average age of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is mid-to-late 60s, Hardacre said, with a vast majority of cases being sporadic. He said it’s basically “bad luck.”

But there are risk factors, he said, including smoking, heavy drinking, and in some cases a genetic predisposition for the disease. Some sufferers of chronic pancreatitis may also be at risk.

Besides eating right and abstaining from smoking and heavy drinking, there's very little that can be done to prevent the disease.

Caught in its advanced stages, pancreatic cancer, which affects about 30,000 people a year, has a 5 percent survival rate for five years. Caught early enough and treated with surgery and chemotherapy, the five-year survival rate goes up to 17 to 25 percent.

“Approximately 20 percent of patients have cancer confined to [the] pancreas that is able to be removed surgically,” Hardacre said. “And it is those patients who have the best outlook and the only real hope for long-term survival or a cure.”
Instead of looking at it as “death sentence,” Hardacre said it’s important for patients to keep a positive attitude.

“No doubt that it is a bad disease to have — but you’ve got to look at this like the glass is half full and not half empty.”

And it seems Swayze did just that — living life to the fullest right until the very end.

[trimmonthelake]

From Road House.   

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.wesh.com/entertainment/20912795/detail.html
Stars Pay Tribute To Patrick Swayze
"Dirty Dancing" Star Dies At Age 57

POSTED: 8:05 pm EDT September 14, 2009
UPDATED: 9:58 am EDT September 15, 2009
LOS ANGELES -- Friends and colleagues are remembering actor Patrick Swayze, who died Monday at 57 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

C. Thomas Howell, who co-starred with Swayze in "The Outsiders," "Grandview U.S.A." and "Red Dawn", said: "I have always had a special place in my heart for Patrick. While I was fortunate enough to work with him in three films, it was our passion for horses that forged a friendship between us that I treasure to this day. Not only did we lose a fine actor today, I lost my older `Outsiders' brother."

Other celebrities used Twitter to express condolences, and "Dirty Dancing" was the top trending topic for a while Monday night, trailed by several other Swayze films.

Ashton Kutcher -- whose wife, Demi Moore, co-starred with Swayze in "Ghost" -- wrote: "RIP P Swayze." Kutcher also linked to a YouTube clip of the actor poking fun at himself in a classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent - and frighteningly shirtless - Chris Farley.

And Larry King wrote: "Patrick Swayze was a wonderful actor & a terrific guy. He put his heart in everything. He was an extraordinary fighter in his battle w Cancer." King added that he'd do a tribute to Swayze on his CNN program Tuesday night.
The hunky actor who danced his way into moviegoers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost." His publicist announced Swayze's death Monday evening.

"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 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.

Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making "The Beast" because they would have taken the edge off his performance. The show 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.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that. Swayze acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.
"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.

A coming-of-age romance starring Jennifer Grey as an idealistic young woman on vacation with her family and Swayze as the Catskills resort's sexy (and much older) dance instructor, the film made great use of both his grace on his feet and his muscular physique.

It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," stage productions and a sequel, 2004's "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," in which he made a cameo.

Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad "She's Like the Wind," inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."
Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action flick "Road House," in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar. But it was his performance in 1990's "Ghost" that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side. He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Moore) - with great frustration and longing - through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.

Why did he want the part so badly? "It made me cry four or five times," he said of Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.

"Ghost" provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn't have won if it weren't for Swayze.

"When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick," Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."
Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.

His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.

"I couldn't get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho," he told the AP then. But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced "To Wong Foo," Spielberg didn't recognize him.

Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane.

Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grandview U.S.A." (for which he also provided choreography) and "Youngblood," once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.
In the '90s, he made such eclectic films as "Point Break" (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western "Tall Tale" (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill. He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse. In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko," and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with "Chicago"; 2006 found him in the musical "Guys and Dolls" in London.

Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."

He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease." But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.

Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie "Skatetown, U.S.A." The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.

Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.
Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center.

RIP Patrick.   

[Nut44x4]

Pancreatic cancer: What you should know
September 15, 7:18 AM

This morning brings the sad news that Patrick Swayze lost his 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Around this time last year, another giant, Gene Upshaw, succumbed to the little-understood and very deadly disease.

While no evidence indicates that pancreatic cancer cases are increasing, the recent attention brought to the disease has undoubtedly raised concerns about the cancer, who gets it and how it can be treated.

Here is a brief summary of what is known about pancreatic cancer.

What does the pancreas do?

Sitting beneath the liver and behind the stomach, the pancreas produces insulin and enzymes that help your body break down proteins and fats. Unlike many other organs that play roles in digestion such as the gall bladder or liver, you cannot live without all of your pancreas.

Who gets pancreatic cancer?

A little more than 42,000 Americans get diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year. Researchers have not identified specific causes of pancreatic cancer. People who smoke--a group that included Swayze--seem to have the highest risk for developing the disease, as do people who are older than 60. Jews and blacks receive more diagnoses of pancreatic cancer than do people of other ethic and racial groups, and people with diabetes or a permanently swollen pancreas have greater risks for pancreatic cancer. Diets high in fat and fried foods also increase people's risk for pancreatic cancer.

What symptoms does pancreatic cancer cause?

The most prominent symptom of pancreatic cancer is pain that starts in the abdomen and radiates through the back. This pain can become debilitating. Patients also lose their appetite, lose weight and grow progressively weaker as the cancer spreads. Many patients become depressed as they grow sicker.

What treatments are available?

About one in five people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer can undergo a surgery called a Whipple procedure in which a tumor gets removed from the pancreas. This does not always remove all the cancer, however. Most patients with pancreatic cancer receive only chemotherapy with the drug gemcitabine (e.g., Gemzar). Radiation can sometimes help slow the spread of pancreatic cancer.

How long do people with pancreatic cancer live?

Fewer than 6 percent of people with pancreatic cancer survive for five years after receiving their diagnosis.

Where can people with pancreatic cancer find support?

Patients and their family members can find information and resources for dealing with pancreatic cancer through Pancreatica.org and the Web site of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

http://www.examiner.com/x-15966-Norfolk-Health-Care-Examiner~y2009m9d15-Pancreatic-cancer-What-you-should-know

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.clickorlando.com/entertainment/20968295/detail.html
'Dirty Dancing' Town Plans Swayze Memorial
Patrick Swayze Died Of Pancreatic Cancer
MARTHA WAGGONER, Associated Press Writer

POSTED: Thursday, September 17, 2009
UPDATED: 2:13 pm EDT September 17, 2009
Getty Images
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The residents of a North Carolina community where much of "Dirty Dancing" was filmed are planning a memorial service for star Patrick Swayze.

Swayze died Monday evening of pancreatic cancer.

The town of Lake Lure will remember the 57-year-old during a memorial service at 7 p.m. Saturday at Firefly Cove, a housing development that was Camp Chimney Rock when "Dirty Dancing" was filmed. Many of the film's outdoor scenes were filmed there, as was the cabin of Johnny Castle, Swayze's character.

Although the service is free, visitors will be asked to donate to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

The movie was released in 1987.

[cece]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/7vDH5K1k2OA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/7vDH5K1k2OA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1</a>

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/24/patrick.swayze.widow/index.html

Patrick Swayze's widow to break silence
By Elizabeth Leonard, People.com
October 24, 2009 9:56 a.m. EDT


For the first time since his death, Swayze's widow Lisa Niemi will speak out at a conference next week.


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

    * Six weeks after his death, Patrick Swayze's widow will talk about it for the first time
    * The discussion will be moderated by California First Lady Maria Shriver
    * The Women's Conference 2009 will gather more than 25,000 women for the event


(People.com) -- In her first interview since Swayze's September 14 death, Lisa Niemi, 53, who was married to the actor for 34 years, will join Elizabeth Edwards and Susan St. James, both of whom suffered the loss of children in accidents.

The discussion will be moderated by California First Lady and Women's Conference host Maria Shriver, who this summer lost her mother Eunice Shriver and uncle Ted Kennedy.

PEOPLE.com: Patrick Swayze: A talented heartthrob remembered

Swayze and Niemi, who met as teenagers while they were both students at his mom's dance studio, shared one of Hollywood's most enduring romances.

Over the years, the couple -- both pilots who often flew together and shared a love of horseback riding and the outdoors -- developed "an ease," Swayze told PEOPLE in 2007. "We've been partners for a long time."

PEOPLE.com: Pals: Patrick & Lisa Swayze are 'each other's rocks'

It was Lisa who proved a "pillar of strength" during the trying past year, her brother-in-law Don told PEOPLE. United in their focus to overcome Swayze's pancreatic cancer and, as ever, spend his last days by each other's sides, the couple maintained a fierce determination right up until Swayze's death.

The Women's Conference 2009, hosted by Shriver and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, gathers more than 100 newsmakers and world opinion leaders with 25,000 women from all walks of life for to be "educated, inspired and empowered to be Architects of Change in their own lives, within their communities and around the world."

ARCHIVE: Revisit Patrick Swayze's life in PEOPLE covers

The Women's Conference will be streamed live at 8 am PST on October 27 at www.WomensConference.org.

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There are several places you can click on in this article, if you will go to the link at the top of the page, and then click on the blue areas in the story for more information. 

[Nut44x4]

Swayze's widow speaks publicly about her loss

 Oct 29 2009
Patrick Swayze's widow has spoken publicly about her sorrow, saying she grieves for her husband "on a cellular level".

Just two months after her husband-of-34 years died of pancreatic cancer, Lisa Niemi spoke openly about her emotions at a women's conference in California on Tuesday.

"I've spent two-thirds of my life with him," Niemi said about her Hollywood star husband during a roundtable discussion on grief.

"My only regret is that I didn't tell him I loved him enough over that entire 34 years.

"I am so grateful for what I had and my connection to him, and part of me believes that I will see him again."

Dressed in black, Niemi spoke about how important her friends were in helping her deal with her loss.

"I have a few girlfriends that are just amazing — they have made themselves available to me 24/7," she said.

"They say, 'We don't care if it's two in the morning, call me'."

Niemi was joined in the discussion by Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, whose child died in a car accident. Actress Susan St James, whose son died in a plane crash, also attended.

Actress Kelly Preston was expected to speak at the event about the loss of her son Jett Travolta but she pulled out.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/924044/swayzes-widow-speaks-publicly-about-her-loss

[MuffyBee]

http://www.austin360.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/Movies/US_Swayze_Scholarship.html

Arabian Horse Foundation begins Swayze scholarship


November 27, 2009 - 4:10 p.m. CST
DAYTON, Ohio — The Arabian Horse Foundation has established a scholarship in honor of the late actor Patrick Swayze and his wife.
More...

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On the Net:

.http://www.arabianhorsefoundation.org