Patrick Swayze Biography

Actor Patrick Swayze was best known for his romantic roles in the surprise movie hits Dirty Dancing (1987) and Ghost (1990) and as the tough-guy bouncer in the campy cult favorite Road House (1989).

Trained as a ballet dancer, Patrick Swayze got his start in acting on the New York stage, and his success in the Broadway production of Grease led to a career in Hollywood. His performance as the eldest “greaser” in the Francis Ford Coppola film The Outsiders (1983, based on the novel by S.E. Hinton) proved his talent and marketability as a lean leading man.

He appeared in action films such as Uncommon Valor (1983, starring Gene Hackman) and Red Dawn (1984), but then Swayze got back to dancing in the box office smash Dirty Dancing, playing a Catskills dance instructor who falls for a coming-of-age young woman (played by Jennifer Gray). The role made him a famous beefcake; his place as a romantic hunk was cemented with the even bigger hit Ghost (opposite Demi Moore).

Then came the 1990s and the ridiculous and yet beloved Point Break (1991, with Keanu Reeves). Swayze’s sister died and for a time he had troubles with alcohol and forgettable movies. Swayze bounced back in the 2000s, in a key role in the Jake Gyllenhaal film Donnie Darko (2001). His other films include Road House (1989), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995) and Green Dragon (2001, with Forest Whitaker).

Swayze began starring as a rogue FBI agent in the TV series The Beast in 2008, but he was soon incapacitated by pancreatic cancer and died in September of 2009.