Friday, September 18, 2009

Patrick Swayze - A Remembrance

AU REVOIR, PATRICK
Many film fans were deeply saddened by the passing of actor Patrick Swayze earlier this week at age 57... I am among them.

A VERY SPECIAL TALENT
I never thought of Swayze as a "great" actor. I thought he was a good actor with a very unusual range of talents. Yes, he could act, but he could also sing and dance. My wife is also a huge fan and, as you might expect, loves "Dirty Dancing" - a seminal movie in Swayze's career. As only a guy deeply in love with a woman for 42 years and counting will do, I sit and watch that movie with her time after time after time.

OTHER MEMORABLE MOVIES

I've enjoyed many movies he made - Red Dawn, Ghost, Point Break and Road House, to name a few.

AN EXCELLENT REMEMBRANCE

There have been many, many remembrances written about Swayze since he died. One of the best I've read was written by film critic Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. You can read it HERE.

MY SPECIAL INTEREST IN HIM

Although I've enjoyed Patrick Swayze as an actor for two decades, I developed a special interest when it was announced a couple years ago that he was suffering from Pancreatic Cancer. Both my father and his younger brother died of that ailment at almost precisely the same times in their lives. My uncle was 10 years junior to my father. They worked together in their business for more than 40 years. They shared the same environment, stress and cigarettes during that time.

SWAYZE FOUGHT LONGER

My father retired at age 62 and passed away from pancreatic cancer at age 64 following a short - 3 month - illness. His brother retired at 62 and died at 64 - almost 10 years to the date of my father's passing. Fortunately for both of them, their illness was brief. Swayze suffered with his disease for much longer and kept working right up to the end.

A FEW VIDEO REMEMBRANCES FOR YOU...
I leave you today with some YouTube videos to help you remember the talented man Patrick Swayze was. The first, with Patrick and Jennifer Gray dancing to "The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing is a signature recollection of him.

The second is Patrick and his wife of 34 years, Lisa Nieme, dancing at the 1994 World Music Awards.

The final one, from the sound track of Dirty Dancing, is Patrick singing "She's Like The Wind".

Patrick Swayze - Rest In Peace






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1 Comments:

Blogger Humberto said...

Geoff, I didn't know Patick had a dancing video with his wife. I loved it. Thanks. By the way, one of my all time favorite movies is Ghost.

9/21/2009 09:22:00 AM  

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