Other Famous People

Patrick Swayze Biography

Patrick Swayze is known to his friends and family as Buddy or Little Buddy, was an American actor, dancer, singer, and songwriter. Gaining fame with appearances in films during the 1980s, he became popular for playing tough guys and romantic lead males, giving him a wide fan base with female audiences and a status as a sex symbol. He was named by People magazine as its Sexiest Man Alive in 1991.

Patrick Swayze Age

Swayze was born on August 18, 1952, in Houston, Texas. He passed away at the age of 57 in 2009, following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Patrick Swayze Brother

His brother Don Swayze is an American actor, noted for character acting in dramatic series and soap operas as well as several feature films, and theatrical work. He was born in Texas, the middle child of Patsy Swayze. His direct paternal ancestor was Englishman John Swasey (1619-1706) from Bridport in Dorset. During the great migration, he traveled aboard The Recovery arriving at Massachusetts. He married Katherine Kinge from Esse, eventually having seven children. The grandson Samuel was among the early members of the family to use the Swayze spelling.

Patrick Swayze Lisa Niemi

• Swayze met his future wife, Lisa Niemi when she was a 15-year-old student at his mother’s dance studio in the early 1970s. They were married in 1975.
• After having a miscarriage in 1990, the couple gave up on having children. Instead, they invested their time and love on their ranch full of dogs, horses, and cattle. “We’re a team,” He said of he and his wife. “A relationship survives because of keeping the friendship alive and learning how to fall in love over and over again and never taking the other person for granted and seeing things in a new light with new eyes.”
• In 1997, Swayze broke his right leg in a horse-riding accident while filming Letters From a Killer. Around that time, the actor recognized that a serious drinking problem was hampering his career and he entered a rehab clinic.

Patrick Swayze Son

Swayze and his wife had no children.

Facts: Everything You Need to Know About Patrick Swayze

• Height: 1.78 m
• Weight: Not available
• Shoe Size: Not available
• Body Shape: Not available
• Hair Colour: Not available

Patrick Swayze Net Worth

Swayze had a net worth of $40 Million in the year 2009 when he died. He collected his net worth through his film and TV career. He was into movies and television for more than 30 years.

Patrick Swayze Movies

The Top Five Patrick Swayze Movies By Order of Masculinity

1. Point Break-Bodhi

Bodhi was a spiritual kind of guy but also a walking complication in that as much as he sought balance he also sought chaos. There was no denying that he and his group sowed as much disorder as they possibly could in their pursuit of balance.

Patrick Swayze was a unique actor, and as of now, he’s missed. Rest in peace, sir.

2. Red Dawn-Jed

Jed was the tough guy. He was the one that rallied everyone and got them going in an effort to stay alive and let the Soviet invaders know that they were less than welcome in the Midwest. When a foreign army decides to come calling, IF it ever happened, one could only hope that the locals wouldn’t just let themselves be rounded up like sheep. It’d be a point of pride for them to let those invading our home know that Americans know how to pull together when the going gets rough.

3. Next of Kin-Truman Gates

He was more than just cope from the hills, he was a man that valued his family and wouldn’t take any harm given to them lying down. But it needs to be said that from the start he wanted to do everything according to the book and as legal as possible. When the other side isn’t willing to follow the rules of engagement however it’s time to go back to your roots and remind people just how truly tough you can really be.

4. Road House-Dalton

Swayze wasn’t always the rough, tough and tumble kind of guy when he played the tough guy in movies. He was often the quiet, unassuming person that could level you without much effort if he really had the need. Dalton wasn’t a peaceful man all the time but he sought out a balance in a way that kept him from being the ambivalent type like those that came against him continually in this movie.

5. Dirty Dancing-Johnny Castle

Some of you might go out on a limb and say that this was not a masculine role since he was a dance instructor and didn’t bother to act tough throughout the movie. Those that would say such things likely didn’t watch the movie to start with since Johnny Castle is all man no matter that he prances around the stage at times. When he’s not busting a move like a pro he’s definitely showing that he’s all-male and proud of it.

Patrick Swayze Death

• In late December 2007, just after filming his pilot episode for The Beast, Swayze began to suffer a burning feeling in his stomach caused by a blockage of his bile ducts. After three weeks, in mid-January 2008, he was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. He traveled to the Stanford University Medical Center for chemotherapy and treatment with the experimental drug vatalanib which doctors hoped would cut off the blood supply to the tumor.
• On March 5, 2008, a Reuters article reported that Swayze “has a very limited amount of disease, and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far.” His doctor confirmed that actor Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer but insisted he was not as close to death as reports suggested. Despite repeated tabloid claims that his death was imminent, he continued to actively pursue his career.
• In early May 2008, it was widely reported in a number of tabloids that Swayze underwent surgery to remove part of his stomach after the cancer spread. Reports also stated that he rewrote his will, transferring his property to his wife. In a statement made on May 28, his response to treatment at Stanford University Medical Center was good. In late May 2008, he was seen at a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game, his first public appearance since his diagnosis.
• Swayze appeared on the ABC, NBC, and CBS simulcast of Stand Up to Cancer in September 2008, to appeal to the general public for donations for the initiative. He said to a standing ovation, “I dream that the word ‘cure’ will no longer be followed by the words ‘it’s impossible’. Together, we can make a world where cancer no longer means living with fear, without hope, or worse.” After the show ended, Swayze remained onstage and talked to other cancer patients.
• On January 9, 2009, Swayze was hospitalized with pneumonia. The pneumonia was said to be a complication of chemotherapy for his cancer. On January 16, he was released from the hospital for home rest with his wife. On April 19, 2009, doctors informed Swayze that cancer had again metastasized to his liver. Swayze had been a heavy smoker for forty years, and he once admitted to smoking 60 cigarettes a day. He stated that his chain smoking probably “had something to do with” the development of his disease. Photos taken of a gaunt Swayze in the months before his death showed him continuing to smoke.
• Swayze died, with family at his side, on September 14, 2009, at the age of 57. Swayze’s death occurred 20 months after his cancer diagnosis. Swayze’s publicist confirmed to CNN that he had died of pancreatic cancer. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered over his New Mexico ranch.

Patrick Swayze Dirty Dancing

• It was the release of the surprise hit Dirty Dancing (1987) that brought Swayze instant celebrity and established him as Hollywood’s newest heartthrob. The film featured Swayze as the misunderstood dance instructor Johnny Castle, a role that earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
• Dirty Dancing also allowed Swayze to pursue a singing career. Inspired by his relationship with his wife, Lisa, Swayze and co-writer Stacy Widelitz penned the song “She’s Like the Wind” for the film’s soundtrack. “I had been meeting girls with names like Mimi and Angel. And for a long time I didn’t feel like I deserved her,” Swayze told People magazine. “I just felt at that time that I’m very, very lucky to have a woman who thinks I hung the moon.”
• The song resonated with music fans and the single catapulted to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

Last Words Before His Death

• September 14 will mark 10 years since the world said goodbye to renowned actor Patrick Swayze. The Dirty Dancing and Ghost star died in 2009 after battling pancreatic cancer for 20 months.
• While fighting the disease, his wife of 34 years, Lisa Niemi, was by his side. As she penned in her 2011 memoir, Worth Fighting For, the actor spoke his final words to her Friday evening and died the following Monday morning.
• “My last words to Patrick? ‘I love you,’ and those were his last words to me. After I brought him home, things went very fast,” she wrote. Lisa went on to say that Patrick slipped into a full coma soon after.
• “I cherished our time alone, holding his hand, listening to music, sleeping with my arm around him, my head on his shoulder, wordlessly.”
• She went on: “In the quiet of Monday morning, September 14, I looked at his face and listened to the tiny sips of air he was taking. There was something delicate, childlike about it. I knew it was time.”

Patrick Swayze Point Break

• Point Break is a 1991 American action film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by W. Peter Iliff. It stars Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty, and Gary Busey, and the film’s title refers to the surfing term “point break”, where a wave breaks as it hits a point of land jutting out from the coastline.
• The film also features Reeves as an undercover cop tasked with investigating and discovering the identities of a group of high-level bank robbers, who then develops a complex relationship with the group’s leader.
• Development of Point Break began in 1986 when Iliff wrote an initial treatment for the film. Bigelow soon developed the script with husband James Cameron, and filming took place four years later. It was shot across the western coast of the continental United States and was officially budgeted at $24 million, before being released for traditional viewing on July 12, 1991.
• Point Break opened to generally positive critical reception, with critics highly praising the relationship between Reeves and Swayze. During its theatrical run, the film grossed over $83.5 million and has since gained a cult following. Following the film’s success, Point Break was re-released on Blu-ray on June 14, 2011; it also spawned a remake that was released in 2015, to negative reviews.

Patrick Swayze New Documentary

• Patrick Swayze suffered physical abuse as a child, alleges a new documentary on the life of the late actor.
• In the film I Am Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi Swayze, his widow, claims that Patrick’s mother Patsy physically abused him as a child. “She could be very violent,” Lisa reveals in the documentary, airing on the Paramount Network on August 18.
• The future Dirty Dancing star was born on August 18, 1952, the second of five children to Patsy and Jesse Swayze in Houston, Texas, reports the Daily Mail.
• Patsy ran the Swayze School of Dance, where Patrick began taking dance lessons at an early age from his mother, according to Biography.
• Lisa, who was married to Patrick from 1975 until his death in 2009, says that Patsy’s perfectionism and high-expectations often turned into physical abuse. In an interview with People magazine, she told Patrick’s story of the day the abuse finally ended.
• “Patrick privately recounted the story of his 18th birthday when Patsy was ‘laying into him’ before his father [Jesse] told his wife [Patsy] that he would divorce her if she touched their son again.”
• “She never hit him after that,” Lisa told People. In the documentary, Lisa says that it was exactly what happens in “families with a cycle of abuse.” She went on to say that his mother “could be very violent, but it was nothing compared to what she endured growing up and the stories I heard about what she went through with her own mother.”
• Patrick’s brother Don says in the film: “He always thought Mom was so strict and so hard on him. But the way I saw it she just used that to spur him on. He was everything to my mother.”
• Lisa said Patrick began to view Patsy more positively once he moved away from home. Patsy even followed Patrick and Lisa to Hollywood and began working as a choreographer in the film industry.