page_title: Patrick Swayze
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Patrick Swayze / Career
caption_attribution_description: Patrick Swayze at the 61st Academy Awards.
context_page_description: Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer, singer, and songwriter. Gaining fame with appearances in films during the 1980s, he became popular for playing tough and romantic male leads, giving him a wide fan base. He was named by People magazine as its Sexiest Man Alive in 1991.
  During his career, Swayze received three Golden Globe Award nominations, for Dirty Dancing, Ghost, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. He wrote and recorded the popular song "She's Like the Wind" and was posthumously awarded the Rolex Dance Award in 2012. Swayze died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 57.
context_section_description: Patrick Swayze's first professional appearance was as a dancer for the Disney Theatrical Group in a show called Disney on Parade. He then starred in the role of Danny Zuko in one of the replacement casts for the long-running Broadway production of Grease In 1979, he made his film debut as "Ace" in Skatetown, U.S.A.. He appeared in the poignant M*A*S*H episode Blood Brothers in 1981 as Private Sturgis, whose wounds are minor, but which led to the discovery that he is terminally ill with cancer. That same year he appeared in the TV movie Return of the Rebels with Barbara Eden, and then had a brief stint in 1983 on a short-lived TV series The Renegades, playing a gang leader named Bandit.
  Swayze became better known to the film industry after appearing in The Outsiders in 1983 as the older brother of C. Thomas Howell and Rob Lowe. The same year, Swayze played a U.S.M.C. trainer in Vietnam rescue film Uncommon Valor with Gene Hackman. The following year, Swayze, Howell, and Howell's friend and fellow The Outsiders actor Darren Dalton reunited in Red Dawn, along with Jennifer Grey. In 1986, Lowe and Swayze reunited in Youngblood. Swayze's first major dramatic success was in the 1985 television miniseries North and South, set during the American Civil War.
  However, Swayze is probably best remembered for what was actually a low-budget movie, planned for only a one-week release, after which it was to go to video. Instead, Dirty Dancing propelled him to fame in 1987 playing resort dance instructor Johnny Castle, alongside his Red Dawn co-star Jennifer Grey. The story enabled Swayze to dance and romance Grey as well as showcasing his professional dance training. In addition to acting and dancing, Swayze co-composed and sang one of the songs on the soundtrack for Dirty Dancing, "She's Like the Wind". The song  became a top-10 hit that has been covered by other artists since. Swayze had originally co-written the song with Stacy Widelitz for the film Grandview, U.S.A. in 1984.
  Dirty Dancing's coming of age story first became a surprise hit, and then achieved enormous international success. It was the first film to sell one million copies on video, and as of 2009, it had earned over $214 million worldwide. The film also generated several alternative, or derivative versions, ranging from a television series to stage productions to a computer game. 
  Swayze received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the role. The film was re-released briefly in 1997 for its tenth anniversary.
  After Dirty Dancing, Swayze found himself in great demand, and appeared in several films, including Road House in 1989 with Sam Elliott, Ben Gazzara and Kelly Lynch. His next big role came when he starred in Ghost (1990) with Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. In 1991, he starred alongside Youngblood castmate Keanu Reeves in another major action hit, Point Break, and he was also chosen that year by People magazine as that year's "Sexiest Man Alive".
  For his contributions to the film industry, Swayze was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997.
  Swayze was seriously injured in May 1997 while filming HBO's Letters from a Killer near Ione, California, when he fell from a horse and hit a tree. Both of his legs were broken, and he suffered four detached tendons in his shoulder. Filming was suspended for two months. The film aired in 1998, and Swayze slowly recovered from his injuries, but he had trouble resuming his career until 2000, when he co-starred in Forever Lulu, with Melanie Griffith.
  In 2001, he appeared in Donnie Darko, where he played a famous motivational speaker revealed to be a closeted pedophile. In 2002, he co-starred with Billy Bob Thornton and Charlize Theron in Waking Up in Reno, which focuses on two redneck couples taking a road trip from Little Rock to Reno to see a monster truck rally. In 2004, he played Allan Quatermain in King Solomon's Mines and had a cameo appearance in the Dirty Dancing prequel Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights as an unnamed dance instructor.
  In 2003, Swayze co-produced and also starred in the fictional dance film One Last D
caption: Swayze at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989
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