Fifteen years ago, the world lost one of its greatest cinema idols of all time, Patrick Swayze. Since then, his blockbusters continue to delight audiences, bringing new generations under the spell of the ruggedly handsome leading man who was equally at home kicking ass in an action flick or melting hearts in a rom-com.
“He was smart, funny, articulate [and] insanely talented in so many different disciplines,” his longtime assistant Rosemary Hygate exclusively shares in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “The world lost an amazing human when he passed too young.”
Behind the scenes, Swayze’s story was infinitely more complex. His private life was also shaped by hardship, loss and addiction that never eclipsed his global success. It’s a testament to his character that in the years since his untimely death, in 2009 at age 57, he’s remembered by those who loved him as unfailingly decent, kind and fair.
“When you go see a Patrick Swayze film, you know before a single frame is shown that no matter what, he’ll take care of business and he’ll take care of you,” former manager Kate Edwards tells Us. “It’s that promise and commitment to the viewer that keeps us coming back again and again, and it’s why he’ll remain a movie star forever.”
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Finding His Way
Born in Houston, Texas, in 1952, Swayze grew up in a household with a devoted father, Jesse, and a difficult, exacting mother, Patsy. A dance teacher, Patsy forced her children to follow in her footsteps. “Mom was an amazing teacher but a demanding one,” Swayze recalled in his 2009 memoir, The Time of My Life. “We kids worked hard to win her approval in a series of competitions we didn’t realize we could never win.”
One thing Swayze did win at his mom’s studio was the heart of the woman he’d spend the rest of his life with, wife Lisa Niemi. “They found that perfect love the day they met,” Frank Whiteley, Swayze’s longtime bodyguard, tells Us. “He loved Lisa with his dying breath. The moon and sun set on that woman every damn day of his life.”
After knee injuries derailed Swayze’s football and ballet careers, he and Niemi moved to L.A. in 1978. “At night, I’d drive up to a spot on Mulholland Drive that had a beautiful panoramic view… I’d sit there, looking out over the lights of Hollywood, and say, ‘I am going to conquer you,’” he wrote in his memoir. “If I was going to make it in Hollywood, I had to really believe I could do it.”
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He was right to believe. The actor landed a breakthrough role in 1983’s The Outsiders alongside Tom Cruise (Swayze taught Cruise the backflip he does in the film!), Rob Lowe and C. Thomas Howell.
“Patrick wore his heart on his sleeve,” Howell, who considered Swayze a big brother to him, tells Us. “He was one of the most giving people I’ve ever been around.” Howell, who also starred with the actor in Grandview, U.S.A. and Red Dawn, adds that Swayze “went out of his way to protect me on the set of the films we did together.”
Within two years, Swayze was getting top billing in movies with established stars like Gene Hackman and starring in the globally successful TV series North and South. “If you want to understand the core essence of who Patrick truly was, watch North and South,” says Edwards. “His character embodies the combination of qualities that made him a special human being and a beloved actor.”
Reaching New Heights
Then, along came a little movie that was meant to be a straight-to-video release. Instead, 1987’s Dirty Dancing turned into a global phenomenon. Initially, Swayze “didn’t like” the “fluffy” script. Ultimately, he saw it as an opportunity to stretch himself as an actor, and the conviction he brought to the role elevated the script to something more powerful.
“‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner’ is a tricky line to pull off, but I think Patrick related to its meaning in a deeper, more personal way,” Edwards tells Us. “He fought from a very young age not to be pigeonholed as the pretty boy dancer. So, I think maybe the subtext was actually ‘nobody puts Patrick in a corner,’ which made that potentially cringey line totally work.”
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Swayze then did Road House, another smash hit. After that, instead of continuing as an action star, he fought for a role in a rom-com. The 1990 film Ghost cemented Swayze’s place as Hollywood’s leading man for action and romance. “In Ghost, you saw the sensitive side, but you knew he was a tough guy,” says Whiteley. “He didn’t have to show it.”
Away from the cameras, Swayze was struggling. After the death of his beloved father in 1982, the actor began drinking. “The pain I felt seemed bottomless,” he wrote in his memoir. “No matter how much I drank, I couldn’t feel anything. So I kept drinking.”
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Point Break, Swayze’s next big hit, gave the adrenaline junkie a taste for doing his own stunts, and he loved the thrill of it. “He chose roles that would mimic his life,” Whiteley says. “In Point Break, he did everything — surfing, skydiving, running, driving.” Whiteley adds that by this point, Swayze was “choosing the roles that made him feel like himself.”
“Patrick was the ultimate risk-taker,” Edwards tells Us. “He pushed himself to the very edge of no return in most everything he did. He liked that edge and the adrenaline that came with it. It fed him more than any food.”
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When Niemi miscarried in 1990, Swayze’s battle with alcohol worsened, and in 1992 he entered rehab. Once sober, tragedy struck again when he fell from a horse while shooting Letters from a Killer, breaking both legs. Swayze recovered enough to complete the film, but his body needed more time to heal, and he and Niemi retreated to their ranch in New Mexico for several years.
“Patrick was the happiest and most himself around his dogs and horses,” recalls Edwards. “His horses were magnificent and when he rode them, the oneness and perfection between the two was breathtaking.”
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A Devastating Diagnosis
For the next decade, Swayze’s life was peaceful. However, in 2008, while filming A&E TV drama The Beast, the actor received tragic news. Whiteley remembers getting the call from Swayze when he told him he had stage IV pancreatic cancer. “He’s like, ‘There’s like a 98 percent chance I’m gonna die, but there’s a 2 percent chance that I can kick its ass and win.’ That’s his philosophy. And he gave it a good fight.”
Refusing to let the cancer stop him, Swayze valiantly continued to work, completing the series while undergoing chemotherapy. “Working The Beast was brutal,” Cliff McLaughlin, Swayze’s stunt double, tells Us. “Flying back and forth, doing chemotherapy, radiation, all the holistic stuff. It had to be tough.”
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Hygate recalls Swayze “fought like the warrior that he was and never lost hope that he was going to be the exception to the rule for that particular diagnosis.” Unfortunately, that was not to be the case, and Swayze succumbed to his cancer the following year.
“He would be a guy that you would sit next to in a bar and he’d… talk to you all night,” says McLaughlin. “There wasn’t a big facade. He could not have cared less about the fame.”
In the years since Swayze passed away, it’s those stories, about his normalcy, his decency and his generosity, that have continued to grow in stature, and he is now remembered as one of the nicest superstars of all time. “Patrick’s personal legacy to us would be to never limit yourself,” Edwards tells Us. “Follow your passion and never, ever give up.”
With reporting by Sarah Jones & Andrea Simpson
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