Tweet
Today, we join untold millions worldwide to say a sad goodbye to Hollywood icon Patrick Swayze.
Although he played dozens of roles, Patrick Swayze's legacy as a true leading man, profoundly stamped into the anguished hearts of so many women, stems from just two unforgettable roles: Johnny Castle (Dirty Dancing) and, to a lesser extent, Sam Wheat (Ghost).
Castle was, by far, Patrick's most iconic role. Dirty Dancing is a film-turned-phenomenon that has practically become required watching material for teenage girls the world over, and it has a permanent place in the collections of grown women everywhere. Sound like an exaggeration? A recent British poll found that Dirty Dancing was the movie that women reported having seen the most times -- on average: 15. A musical based on the film shattered box office records worldwide, from Canada to Germany to London's famed West End, where it sold out for six months solid -- before it even opened.
Of course, a man is more than the sum of his roles, and Patrick Swayze's passing brings to an end an uncommon life -- one marked by a wide pendulum that routinely swung him between peaks reaching into the constellations and valleys deep in tragedy and despair. It was a life Patrick Swayze led, regardless of where the pendulum was, with exceptional dignity and humility.
In deference to such an understated ladies' man and one hell of a guy, we present five things you didn't know about Patrick Swayze.
1- Patrick Swayze landed a Cessna in the suburbs
Like his wife, Patrick Swayze was a licensed, experienced pilot with Instrument Rating (authorized to fly using only the instrument panel to navigate).
In 2000, while flying with his dogs in a twin-engine Cessna from Southern California to his ranch in Las Vegas, Patrick Swayze experienced what he called a "pressure bump" or pressurization failure while flying over Prescott Valley, Arizona. He began looking for an emergency air strip. After passing on two options once he spotted people on them (it was the middle of the afternoon), Swayze finally found a street inside the Mingus West suburban community. Before the plane came to a stop, Swayze's Cessna first bounced off the ground, knocked out a pair of street light poles, clipped a street sign, and thumped a utility box.
2- Patrick Swayze was married to the same woman for over 30 years
In a display of player defiance rarely seen in Hollywood beyond Paul Newman, Patrick Swayze was always a one-woman man.
Patrick Swayze was 19 years old when he first met Lisa Niemi, a girl four years his junior and a student at his mother's Houston-area dance studio. Although, by his own account, he did plenty of flirting with many of his mother's students, Niemi was different and they began a chaste relationship that survived the four years he spent in New York City. About five years after they first met, in 1975, they married. Somehow they managed to stay together through enormous personal loss (such as the death of Patrick's father in 1982), alcohol abuse and, most significantly, his steady rise from obscurity to iconic movie star and sex symbol to millions of women.
3- Patrick Swayze starred in the first PG-13 movie
The MPAA established the PG-13 rating on July 1, 1984. Red Dawn, John Milius' much-maligned World War III flick starring Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey, was not the first film to be given the new rating (The Flamingo Kid had been temporarily shelved), but its distributors made sure it would have the distinction of being the first PG-13 film to be released to theaters by moving the date up a week from August 17 to August 10, thereby trumping Dennis Quaid's Dreamscape, which came out on August 15.
Patrick Swayze and his Wolverine insurgents in Red Dawn would one day inspire the U.S. Army's hunt for Saddam Hussein, but at the time, they earned mostly scorn: The movie so infuriated the National Coalition on Television Violence that they instantly declared it the most violent film ever made, clocking 134 acts of violence per hour.
4- Patrick Swayze's father was a champion rodeo cowboy
In Dirty Dancing, Johnny Castle appeals to women in part because of what he brings to the game: a ruggedly handsome, bad-boy masculinity with the incredible dancing skills. His character sends tingling chills up the spines of some, and cringes down the spines of others.
Nevertheless, you might say that this crossover in masculinity was almost literally inherent in Patrick Swayze; from his mother, a dance instructor and choreographer, he got the rhythm of the dance and from his father, a rodeo champion, the muscle of the cowboy.
Consider that Josef Brown, the dancer who played Castle on stage in Australia and England, cites Swayze in Dirty Dancing for inspiring his career: "[The movie] said to me: 'It's OK to dance and be masculine.'"
5- Patrick Swayze was offered scholarships for both dance and athletics
As a student at Waltrip High School, Patrick Swayze excelled in athletics; he was a top swimmer, gymnast and football player for the school. In a testament to those extraordinarily athletic gifts, when he graduated in 1970, he was offered college scholarships in both dance and athletics. Swayze chose to attend San Antonio's San Jacinto College on a gymnastics scholarship, but he wouldn't graduate; rather, he went off to the Big Apple where he danced with the likes of the prestigious Joffrey Ballet.
All this should come as little surprise. As an actor, Patrick Swayze performed many of his own stunts, a decision that sometimes resulted in injury, but more often than not proved both exhilarating and rewarding. For 1991's Point Break, Patrick Swayze even learned how to skydive.
Although he played dozens of roles, Patrick Swayze's legacy as a true leading man, profoundly stamped into the anguished hearts of so many women, stems from just two unforgettable roles: Johnny Castle (Dirty Dancing) and, to a lesser extent, Sam Wheat (Ghost).
Castle was, by far, Patrick's most iconic role. Dirty Dancing is a film-turned-phenomenon that has practically become required watching material for teenage girls the world over, and it has a permanent place in the collections of grown women everywhere. Sound like an exaggeration? A recent British poll found that Dirty Dancing was the movie that women reported having seen the most times -- on average: 15. A musical based on the film shattered box office records worldwide, from Canada to Germany to London's famed West End, where it sold out for six months solid -- before it even opened.
Of course, a man is more than the sum of his roles, and Patrick Swayze's passing brings to an end an uncommon life -- one marked by a wide pendulum that routinely swung him between peaks reaching into the constellations and valleys deep in tragedy and despair. It was a life Patrick Swayze led, regardless of where the pendulum was, with exceptional dignity and humility.
In deference to such an understated ladies' man and one hell of a guy, we present five things you didn't know about Patrick Swayze.
1- Patrick Swayze landed a Cessna in the suburbs
Like his wife, Patrick Swayze was a licensed, experienced pilot with Instrument Rating (authorized to fly using only the instrument panel to navigate).
In 2000, while flying with his dogs in a twin-engine Cessna from Southern California to his ranch in Las Vegas, Patrick Swayze experienced what he called a "pressure bump" or pressurization failure while flying over Prescott Valley, Arizona. He began looking for an emergency air strip. After passing on two options once he spotted people on them (it was the middle of the afternoon), Swayze finally found a street inside the Mingus West suburban community. Before the plane came to a stop, Swayze's Cessna first bounced off the ground, knocked out a pair of street light poles, clipped a street sign, and thumped a utility box.
2- Patrick Swayze was married to the same woman for over 30 years
In a display of player defiance rarely seen in Hollywood beyond Paul Newman, Patrick Swayze was always a one-woman man.
Patrick Swayze was 19 years old when he first met Lisa Niemi, a girl four years his junior and a student at his mother's Houston-area dance studio. Although, by his own account, he did plenty of flirting with many of his mother's students, Niemi was different and they began a chaste relationship that survived the four years he spent in New York City. About five years after they first met, in 1975, they married. Somehow they managed to stay together through enormous personal loss (such as the death of Patrick's father in 1982), alcohol abuse and, most significantly, his steady rise from obscurity to iconic movie star and sex symbol to millions of women.
3- Patrick Swayze starred in the first PG-13 movie
The MPAA established the PG-13 rating on July 1, 1984. Red Dawn, John Milius' much-maligned World War III flick starring Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey, was not the first film to be given the new rating (The Flamingo Kid had been temporarily shelved), but its distributors made sure it would have the distinction of being the first PG-13 film to be released to theaters by moving the date up a week from August 17 to August 10, thereby trumping Dennis Quaid's Dreamscape, which came out on August 15.
Patrick Swayze and his Wolverine insurgents in Red Dawn would one day inspire the U.S. Army's hunt for Saddam Hussein, but at the time, they earned mostly scorn: The movie so infuriated the National Coalition on Television Violence that they instantly declared it the most violent film ever made, clocking 134 acts of violence per hour.
4- Patrick Swayze's father was a champion rodeo cowboy
In Dirty Dancing, Johnny Castle appeals to women in part because of what he brings to the game: a ruggedly handsome, bad-boy masculinity with the incredible dancing skills. His character sends tingling chills up the spines of some, and cringes down the spines of others.
Nevertheless, you might say that this crossover in masculinity was almost literally inherent in Patrick Swayze; from his mother, a dance instructor and choreographer, he got the rhythm of the dance and from his father, a rodeo champion, the muscle of the cowboy.
Consider that Josef Brown, the dancer who played Castle on stage in Australia and England, cites Swayze in Dirty Dancing for inspiring his career: "[The movie] said to me: 'It's OK to dance and be masculine.'"
5- Patrick Swayze was offered scholarships for both dance and athletics
As a student at Waltrip High School, Patrick Swayze excelled in athletics; he was a top swimmer, gymnast and football player for the school. In a testament to those extraordinarily athletic gifts, when he graduated in 1970, he was offered college scholarships in both dance and athletics. Swayze chose to attend San Antonio's San Jacinto College on a gymnastics scholarship, but he wouldn't graduate; rather, he went off to the Big Apple where he danced with the likes of the prestigious Joffrey Ballet.
All this should come as little surprise. As an actor, Patrick Swayze performed many of his own stunts, a decision that sometimes resulted in injury, but more often than not proved both exhilarating and rewarding. For 1991's Point Break, Patrick Swayze even learned how to skydive.
Comment