'Dirty Dancing' star Patrick Swayze dies

American actor Patrick Swayze, who danced his way into viewers’ hearts with the blockbuster movie Dirty Dancing, lost his battle with pancreatic cancer and died on Monday. He was 57. “Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” said a statement released by his publicist, Annett Wolf. Swayze, best known for his roles in ‘Ghost’, ‘Dirty Dancing’ and in the television miniseries ‘North and South’, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2008. Despite the diagnosis, he kept working and had put together a memoir with his wife, and shooting ‘The Beast’, an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot. Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making ‘The Beast’ because they would have taken the edge off his performance. He acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease. In late July 2008, six months after reportedly being given just weeks to live by medical experts, Swayze was seen in Los Angeles LAX airport, appearing healthy. When asked about his condition, he told reporters “I'm cooking. I'm a miracle dude. I don't know why”. Whoopi Goldberg, who starred with Swayze in one of his biggest movies ‘Ghost’, is saddened by Swayze’s death. She remembers him as a "funny man." “Patrick was a really good man, a funny man and one to whom I owe much that I can't ever repay,' said Goldberg, 'I believe in Ghost's message, so he'll always be near,” she told a news agency.