Patrick Swayze died last night following a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

The Dirty Dancing star’s publicist confirmed he passed away peacefully in LA with his family by his side.

The 57-year-old announced he had the illness in March 2008 but continued to work throughout his treatment and even filmed an American A&E drama series, The Beast.

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.

During the last year, the stricken actor had also begun writing his memoirs with the help of his wife, Lisa Niemi.

In recent months the star had begun to put on weight and appeared healthier, raising hopes that he was beating the illness.

He was pictured in July sporting a goatee beard, smiling and indulging in cigarette breaks, despite the catheters for his chemotherapy which could be seen hanging in front of his shirt.

Mr Swayze had reportedly started preparing himself for death by saying goodbye to his friends and family after discovering the disease had spread.

The Ghost star was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer in January 2008.

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,’ Mr Swayze told ABC television’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.’

He was born on August 18, 1952 in Houston, Texas, the son of a choreographer and engineer.

Mr Swayze studied ballet, acting and gymnastics whilst at school and in 1972 moved to New York to take formal dance training at the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey ballet schools.

His first professional appearance was as a dancer for Disney on Parade and he starred in a Broadway production of Grease before his debut film role as Ace in Skatetown USA.

But his breakthrough role, and perhaps the one he will be best remembered for, was as Johnny Castle in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing.

It was a surprise hit and achieved international success. It was the first film to sell one million copies on video and has earned over $300million worldwide.

Mr Swayze received a Golden Globe award nomination for his role and also sang one of the songs on the soundtrack. The ballad ‘She’s Like the Wind,’ is said to have been inspired by his wife.

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.’

He famously starred in Ghost in 1990, as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Demi Moore) – with great frustration and longing – through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Mr 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.

When asked why he wanted the part so badly, he replied: ‘It made me cry four or five times.’

The film featured the romantic leads sensually crafting pottery together to the strains of The Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody.

He also featured alongside Keanu Reeves in action hit Point Break in 1991, in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, leading to him being chosen by People magazine as the year’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’.

Other hits include Donnie Darko and King Solomon’s Mines.

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 said in 2004.

He married in wife in 1975, after meeting her in 1970. The couple have no children.

A licensed pilot, Ms Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Centre.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

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