It was announced this morning that Patrick Swayze has lost his two year battle with pancreatic cancer.
The actor revealed that he was suffering with cancer back in 2008 but he continued to work throughout his illness on TV series The Beast.
Born in Houston, Texas in 1952 and he began his career as a dancer on Disney on Parade after training at the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey ballet schools before moving into theatre.
He moved into television with M*A*S*H and The Renegades before moving into movies with Youngblood and Red Dawn.
But it was to be his role in Dirty Dancing in 1987, alongside Jennifer Grey, that shot him to fame. Despite being a low budget film the film enjoyed massive success, Swayze was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance.
The film has enjoyed massive success over many years as new generations are introduced to the movie it remains as popular now as it was then.
Swayze struggled to breakaway from the Dirty Dancing stereotype as Road House was one of several flops.
But 1990 turned it all around as he starred in Ghost, which went on to be his biggest hit, with Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg.
After renovating their expensive loft in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, Molly (Moore) and Sam (Swayze), a young successful yuppie couple, are walking home one evening when Sam is tragically gunned down by a street mugger.
Molly goes into a deep depression, but, unknown to her, Sam has come back as a ghost in order to protect her from danger--although he isn't yet aware who or what means her harm, and he has a lot of learning to do in order to make himself known to her.
He teams up with an unwilling psychic, Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg), and together they try to convince a very skeptical Molly that Sam was actually murdered and has returned spectrally to complete some unfinished business.
The film was nominated for a string of Oscars, including Best Picture, and remains one of Swayze's most popular performances.
He followed this up with Point Break with Keanu Reeves and over the years the film has gone on to gain a cult following.
In recent years the actor has juggled movies roles Keeping Mum with work in the theatre, starring in Guys and Dolls and Chicago as well as TV work.
But in early 2008 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent chemotherapy and a series of other treatments in a bid to fight off the disease.
Despite reports that the actor was close to death later that year the actor appeared to be fighting the disease and denied all reports that it had spread or was close to death.
During this time he continued to work. But in January of this year he hospitalised with pneumonia. Back in April doctors revealed that the cancer had spread to his liver.
The actor's publicist confirmed that he had passed away on September 14 after a twenty month battle. He is survived by his wife Lisa.
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