ACTOR PATRICK Swayze's Dirty Dancingco-star Jennifer Grey led tributes yesterday after Swayze lost his two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
The 57-year-old star died yesterday with family members by his side.
Grey said: “Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace.
“Gorgeous and strong, he was a real cowboy with a tender heart. He was fearless and insisted on always doing his own stunts, so it was not surprising to me that the war he waged on his cancer was so courageous and dignified.”
Swayze shot to fame in 1987 with his performance as dance instructor Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing, a coming-of-age story set in a Catskills resort in New York.
The quirky 1990 romance Ghostcemented his status as a screen heart throb, where he played a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancée through a spirit played by Whoopi Goldberg.
“Patrick was a really good man, a funny man and one to whom I owe much that I can’t ever repay,” Goldberg said yesterday. “I believe in Ghost’s message, so he’ll always be near.”
Swayze kept on working even after it was disclosed that he had a particularly deadly form of cancer.
He starred in The Beast, a drama series about the FBI, and said he and his wife Lisa Niemi were working on a memoir.
In addition to the rave reviews for Dirty Dancingand Ghost, his performance in surf thriller Point Breakwas well received and he was nominated for a Golden Globe for his 1995 role as a drag queen in To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar.
In 2006, he made his debut on the British stage, playing Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dollsin the West End opposite former Brookside actress Claire Sweeney.
Fellow actors were shocked to hear the news of Swayze's death as they arrived at the premiere of Partirin Toronto. The film's star, British actor Kristin Scott Thomas, looked visibly shaken and distressed as she passed reporters after learning the news.
Actor Rob Lowe said he had “lost a brother”. He added: “Patrick lived a thousand lifetimes in one lifetime. He was an expert dancer, he wrote hit songs, he starred in hit movies, he was an amazing horseman.
“But the thing I will remember him most for was his amazing love affair with his wife Lisa.”
Lowe added: "He played my brother twice, in The Outsiderswhen I was 17, and then in Youngblood.Tonight I lost a brother."
Lowe was at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto for the premiere of The Invention of Lyingin which he stars with comedian Ricky Gervais and US actress Jennifer Garner.
The Officestar Gervais said of Swayze: "I have never met him, but obviously he was a great actor and it is always sad when someone dies prematurely." – (PA)