That Guy From Dirty Dancing

Written by Rolf

Today Patrick Swayze died of pancreatic cancer. It was known for months that he was fighting cancer, but it still comes as a shock to movie fans when an actor dies.

According to Wikipedia, pancreatic cancer has a very high death rate. In the US each year over 42,000 are diagnosed of which 35,000 die and less than 5% survive another 5 years. Risk factors include smoking, an unhealthy diet (red meat, no fruit), age (60+) and ethnicity (black).

But let's honor Patrick Swayze by listing his best movies (my opinion). Admittedly, I haven't seen all of his movies and didn't like all I've seen, but there were a few gems among them. Unlike some actors, Swayze could play very divers roles and this top 3 reflects that.

3. Dirty Dancing (1987, IMDb)

Probably the one movie that made Swayze ultra famous among the now 35-to-40-year old crowd. I have admitted other embarassing details about myself, so I'm going to go out on a limb and admit that I actually enjoyed Dirty Dancing when I was younger. Probably because Jennifer Grey was cute before her nose job and the music was pretty good. Other than that it's just a silly teen romance movie of course. But entertaining nonetheless.

2. Point Break (1991, IMDb)

Swayze plays a cool surfer who lives for adrenaline kicks that he tries to get in whichever way he can, legal or not. Kaenu Reeves is a cop that must infiltrate in the surfer community to uncover Swayze's criminal activities. You would think that shouldn't be a problem for typical surf dude Keanu, but Patrick is smarter than he thinks. The movie revolves around Reeves and his omg-I-didn't-see-that-coming love affair, but it is Swayze that steals the show, right until the end.

1. Donnie Darko (2001, IMDb)

This movie is actually probably among my top 5 of all times. An unusual combination of drama, thriller, science-fiction and mystery, Donnie Darko gets to you. Swayze has a brilliant role as a motivational speaker whom gets exposed by Donnie. I will not elaborate more, because I want everyone to see this movie if you haven't yet. This is an awesome movie that you must see and see again, trust me.

Patrick Swayze lived to be 57.