Remembering Patrick Swayze, star of “Dirty Dancing,” “Ghost” and “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar”

We lost a great star today when Patrick Swayze succumbed to the cancer he bravely battled for nearly two years.

He was just 57 and is survived by the love of  his life, Lisa Niemi, to whom he was married for 34 years.

Diagnosed with deadly pancreatic cancer, the star of Dirty Dancing, Ghost and dozens of other well-known films underwent treatment and continued to work with his last project being a full season of the A&E series The Beast which aired earlier this year.

It was easy to see why Swayze was named Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine in 1991, shortly after his triumph in Ghost. That was four years after he was a sensation in Dirty Dancing as Johnny Castle where his line “Nobody puts baby in a corner” became part of the pop culture venacular.

The film’s phenonenal elevated him to a whole other level of stardom even though he had already starred in such movies as The Outsiders, Red Dawn, Grandview, USA, Youngblood and the mini-series North & South and North & South Book II.

Among his other memorable films include: To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar; Road House; Point Break, and D0nnie Darko. In 2003, he co-starred with wife Lisa in the film The Last Dance which she co-wrote and directed.

I never got to meet Patrick but we did talk on the phone about five years ago when I wrote a cover piece on him for Orange Coast Magazine. He was promoting One Last Dance and King Solomon’s Mines, his first TV mini-series in nearly two decades.

I want to share some of the interview which I think gives some insight into what kind of guy he was.

On playing drag queen Vida Boheme in “To Wong Foo” : “It was an opportunity to create a character who was truly an angel. But I thought playing a drag queen was a big ol’ lark, and I’d play a big old queen. But in rehearsal when I play-acted it, it didn’t work. I realized her job was to be the heart of this movie. {Miss Vilda} stands for every drag queen on the planet or for anyone who has been misunderstood. It turned out to be the most emotional thing in my entire career and I’m pretty proud of it.”

On his fans: “Fans have been so faithful and been behind me for so long. I’d like to believe it’s because I never forget that fans are the people who put you where you are at. I really appreciate that, and I’ve been able to have a career that keeps going and going and going.”

His career philosophy: “What makes your work special is a sense of danger and unpredictability that can’t be made up. That has to come from you as a person.”

On love: “Relationships are hard, but you never give up. You go through phases. We always try and remember that you have to keep falling in love over and over again and discovering new things about each other….Don’t lose touch with who the other person is growing into, allow them to push the envelope. It makes the relationship about discovery.”