Like most people my age, I know every word to every song of Dirty Dancing – let alone every word uttered by Patrick Swayze in the film (we won’t even get into Road House). It just came at the right time and nailed me square between the eyes. A cousin of mine and I used to have a whole dance routine we used to do for the folks at parties and Bar Mitzvahs. But then I had to decide, either I was going to join the Royal Academy of Dance, or become a sex symbol. I went for the latter. Obviously. People still see me dance from time to time, but I don’t charge them or anything.

Patrick Swayze
1952 – 2009

But, quite seriously, a legend has died. I’m not sure if it’s necessary for him to pass while we’re still dealing with Michael Jackson but, you know, such is the nature of death.

This, from the LA Times:

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 in Los Angeles with his family at his side, his publicist, Annett Wolf, said.

Early last year, Swayze learned he had pancreatic cancer, a diagnosis that came two weeks after production wrapped on the pilot of “The Beast,” an A&E series in which he starred as an unorthodox FBI agent.

Although the cancer was advanced, he was found to have a more controlled form of the disease and persuaded the network to go ahead with the series.

It was shot over five months in Chicago while Swayze was undergoing chemotherapy and taking an experimental drug that targets tumors.

“I’m proud of what I’m doing,” Swayze told the New York Times in October. “How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you’re a dead man? You go to work.”

Days before the series debuted in January, Swayze was admitted to a hospital with pneumonia, a turn that cast a pall over the launch of the show. He was released after a week and went home to rest.

His fame intruded on his final months as he wrestled with what he called the “reckless reporting” that regularly pronounced he was near death. Such coverage amounted to “emotional cruelty,” he said, “when hope is so precious.”

When “Dirty Dancing” was released in 1987, it was a sleeper hit that soared in large part because of Swayze’s considerable charisma and dancing skills. Critics praised the ruffian nobility he brought to the character of Johnny Castle, a sexy-yet-sensitive dance instructor from the wrong side of the tracks.

[read more here]

Seriously though, nobody puts Baby in a corner..

EXTRA

It should be noted that we lost another great, celebrity chef Keith Floyd died today.

Rest in peace.