Patrick Swayze Biography

An athlete practically from birth, Patrick Swayze was a football player in high school and then earned a gymnastics scholarship to pay for college. His father had been a dancer/choreographer, and Swayze began to study dance early on, eventually working with the prestigious Harkness and Joffrey Ballet companies. He made his professional debut as a dancer with the lead role of Prince Charming in a traveling company of Disney on Parade, but an old knee injury from his football days threatened to cut his dancing career short at any moment. Hedging his bets, Swayze opened his repertoire up to acting and made the transition to Broadway, landing the role of Danny in the hit musical Grease before heading to Los Angeles to make yet another transition, this time to the screen.Swayze cut his teeth on TV guest appearances, scoring a memorable role as a dying soldier in an episode of M*A*S*H. Finally, he got a role in Francis Ford Coppola's youth ensemble film The Outsiders (1983), a film of massive critical acclaim and box-office success. Steadily continuing his upward trajectory, he followed The Outsiders with the Cold War classic Red Dawn (1984) and with the Civil War TV miniseries North and South (1985). His real big break came in 1987, however, with a starring role in the hit Dirty Dancing. The film gave Swayze the chance to showcase both his acting and dancing abilities and, additionally, he wrote and performed one of the film's songs, "She's Like the Wind," which went on to become a major hit. The role made Swayze an undisputed star, and he scored big again with a tough-guy role in the movie Road House, as well as the romantic lead in the supernatural drama Ghost (1990), a box-office smash that ended up grossing more than $200 million.The '90s had started out for Swayze with a bang, but with so much of his success wrapped up in the films of the 1980s, the actor soon found himself fighting against the mentality that he was out of date. He found iconic roles like surfer Bodhi in the police thriller Point Break and even played a drag queen in 1995's To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, but transitioning into the next phase of his career proved challenging. In 2001, Swayze found a film to help him facilitate this change with the role of twisted self-help guru Jim Cunningham in the dark mystery drama Donnie Darko. There was an element of self-parody in Swayze's portrayal of the über-positive, deceptively clean-cut Cunningham, and audiences found the role refreshing. He continued to pick up projects as they appealed to him, appearing in everything from the romantic drama One Last Dance to the quirky British comedy Keeping Mum.Sadly, however, by the late 2000s some upsetting news arrived. Swayze announced to the press in March 2008 that he was suffering from inoperable stage IV pancreatic cancer. The star battled his illness for a reported 20 months, but in the end it took his life. He died at the relatively young age of 57 in September 2009. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi

• 1. Johnny Castle: You just put your pickle on everybody's plate, college boy, and leave the hard stuff to me.
  From Dirty Dancing. Submitted by Tavia B (7 months ago)

• 1. Johnny Castle: What's your name, Baby.
  2. Frances "Baby" Houseman: Frances. The first woman in the cabinet.
  3. Johnny Castle: Frances, that's a grown-up name.
  From Dirty Dancing. Submitted by Alyssa B (7 months ago)

• 1. Penny Johnson: Johnny, what are you doin'?
  2. Johnny Castle: Don't worry about Max, I'll tell him your grandmother died or something.
  3. Penny Johnson: How many times have you told me never get mixed up with them?
  4. Johnny Castle: [long pause] I know what I'm doing Penny.
  5. Penny Johnson: You listen to me, you gotta stop it now!
  From Dirty Dancing. Submitted by Alyssa B (8 months ago)

• 1. Johnny Castle: Don't put your heel down, don't put your heel down.
  From Dirty Dancing. Submitted by Alyssa B (8 months ago)

• 1. Darrel Curtis: Movies and books, Movies and books. Is that all you ever think about?
  2. Sodapop Curtis: Why don't you focus on girls and cars? Works for me.
  From The Outsiders. Submitted by Emily G (9 months ago)

• 1. Dalton: It's my way, or the highway.
  From Road House. Submitted by Jonathan S (9 months ago)

• 1. Darrel Curtis: Where the hell have you been; do you know what time it is? It's 2 :00 in the morning, kiddo!
  From The Outsiders. Submitted by Emily C (10 months ago)

• 1. Darrel Curtis: (to Ponyboy) Where the hell have you been?!
  From The Outsiders. Submitted by Emily C (11 months ago)

• 1. Sam Wheat: They're going to kill you, Carl. You and Willie! You're going to be fertilizer. They're gonna bury you right next to Jimmy Hoffa.
  From Ghost. Submitted by Lea L (12 months ago)

• 1. Sam Wheat: Ditto!
  From Ghost. Submitted by Lea L (12 months ago)

• 1. Sam Wheat: I'm Henry the 8th I am. Henry the 8th I am I am. I got married to the widow next door. She's been married seven times before.
  From Ghost. Submitted by Lea L (12 months ago)

• 1. Darrel Curtis: Listen, with your brains and grades, you could get a scholarship, and we could put you through college, ain't that right, Soda? But you're livin' in a vaccuum, Pony, and you're gonna have to cut it out. You just don't stop living because you lose somebody. I thought you knew that. And anytime you don't like the way I'm running things around here, you can just get out, alright?
  From The Outsiders. Submitted by Lea L (12 months ago)

• 1. Sam Wheat: It's amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you.
  From Ghost. Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)

• 1. Johnny Castle: Nobody puts Baby in a corner.
  From Dirty Dancing. Submitted by rob g (14 months ago)

• 1. Johnny Castle: Look, spaghetti arms. This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don't go into yours, you don't go into mine. You gotta hold the frame.
  From Dirty Dancing. Submitted by rob g (14 months ago)