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RIP, Johnny Castle. (AP http://bit.ly/wQZVc):
Patrick Swayze has died after a nearly two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Swayze's publicist Annett Wolf says the 57-year-old “Dirty Dancing” actor died Monday with family at his side.
…It was 1987 when Swayze became a star with his performance in “Dirty Dancing,” a coming-of-age story set in a Catskills resort. The 1990 film “Ghost” cemented his status as a screen favorite.
…He kept on working even after it was disclosed in March 2008 that he had a particularly deadly form of cancer. He starred in “The Beast,” an A&E drama series, and said he and his wife were working on a memoir.
Who can forget this hilarious Chippendale's routine with Chris Farley on SNL:
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RIP, indeedMy goodness, what a terrible way to go. :(
This movie of his, Red Dawn, came out when I was a teen and scared the hell out of me:
57 is too yong.I will always remember him for To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.
Good-night and Good-bye……Miss Vida Bohemme.
“I don’t think of you as a man… And I don’t think of you as a woman. I think of you as an angel.”
“I think that’s healthy.”
He and “Dirty Dancing” had an extra special meaning for some…
The first of November of 1989, I flew to West Berlin to smuggle some Western currency to friends in East Berlin I’d made on an earlier trip. Hungary had stopped cooperating with the Soviets and were refusing to stop East Germans pouring out from behind the Iron Curtain through their borders…and “hard cash” versus the virtually worthless East Marks was an asset.
Overall, the only Western films allowed into East Germany were ones showing the West negatively, but, possibly as a cultural side effect of Gorbi-ism, Dirty Dancing had finally been allowed to be screened in East Berlin, two years after opening in the US.
My 20-something straight friends and their circle were MAD FOR the movie for it wasn’t just a romantic movie with cool music and dancing to them but Swayze’s and Grey’s fighting against class and convention to be allowed to love each other was, to them…all the more for Jennifer Warne’s line “We saw the writing on the wall as we felt this magical fantasy”….the story of living behind The Wall and having every aspect of their lives controlled by the State…with cool music and dancing.
One guy I met had seen it over 20 times, and a party I went to with them featured another treasure…the soundtrack LP [technically illegal in the GDR] that they played over and over.
Now with passion in our eyes
There’s no way we could disguise it secretly
So we take each other’s hand
‘Cause we seem to understand the urgency
As chance would have it, I was on a plane back to San Francisco when The Wall suddenly “fell” but I’m going back to Berlin in November to celebrate its 20th anniversary with my friends and remember the times of our lives.
Our best and our regrets to Patrick’s family and friendsYou will be missed.
Dirty DancingWas filmed just a few miles from my farm near Lake Lure, Western North Carolina. Many of my neighbors were extras in the film. They all thought Patrick Swayze was a nice guy. Sorry he died so young and my thoughts are with his loved ones.
My prayers for his family
I agree, Lurleen!All three were damn smexy as queens. Sorry to see one of the best and brightest (Road House notwithstanding!) leave us way too soon!
Jim CarrollPoet Jim Carroll died on 09/11/09. If you live in NYC, memorial plans are posted on Patti Smith’s website.