1952 – 2009

In January of 2008, Patrick Swayze was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Stage IV is the final of the five stages (0,1,2,3,4), meaning the cancer had already spread to other organs. Given just weeks to survive, he continued to travel with his wife of 34 years, to work on his A&E series ‘the Beast’ and to defy the odds. Until today.

Patrick Swayze, the actor and classically trained dancer whose role in the enduringly popular “Dirty Dancing” made him a movie star, one who struggled with the alienation of fame and against being typecast as a leading man, died Monday. He was 57.
Swayze, who also starred in the blockbuster film ” Ghost,” died with his family at his side, his publicist, Annett Wolf, told the Associated Press.

When I die my greatest hope is that it will be after a life well lived, with someone I love, and my final days marked with dignity. Instead of going to hookers and crying because I can’t get an erection, which is what I do now.