Patrick Swayze was an American actor, singer, and dancer who was perhaps best known for
his leading roles in romantic-comedy, action, and drama films such as Dirty Dancing, Ghost,
Road House, and Point Break.
He was also famous for the way that his image as a heartthrob was portrayed in the media.
In 1991, for example, People magazine named him the 'Sexiest Man Alive'.
Swayze also made a name for himself as a gifted songwriter and musician.
In 1987, he released the hit song.
She's Like The Wind, which reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts and
number one on the Adult Contemporary charts.
In 2009, Swayze passed away after a very public battle with cancer.
In this video, we're going to be focusing on Patrick Swayze's final years while revealing
what his heartbreaking last words were.
We'll also check in with his widow, Niemi Swayze, to see how she is holding up 12 years
after losing her husband.
Patrick's Final Years
In 2007, while Swayze was filming for the television show 'The Beast' in which he played
an FBI agent with some rather ethically questionable methods, he began to experience this intense
burning sensation in his stomach.
When he went to the doctor to try and identify what was going on with his body, he learned
that he had pancreatic cancer and that his bile ducts were clogged up, leading to the
pain he was experiencing.
When the word broke that Swayze had cancer, it resulted in a veritable media frenzy.
For months, there was a great deal of speculation going around about the severity of his illness
and how long he might have left to live.
Swayze naturally wasn't amused by all of this baseless speculation and asked the public
for a bit of privacy as he navigated the situation.
He especially was upset with how the media was jumping to wild conclusions about an issue
that was so intimate and impactful for him.
Swayze repeatedly denied rumors put out by the media that asserted such sensational things
as him having to get a part of his stomach surgically removed and that he was only days
away from death.
While he was battling the illness, Swayze did everything that he could, given the circumstances,
to help raise money and awareness for cancer research.
Being such a big-name star meant that he had a relatively large platform at his disposal,
and he wanted to make sure that he was able to use it to make something good come from
his dire situation.
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Stay tuned to find out what Patrick Swayze's heart-wrenching last words were.
For A Good Cause
In 2008, Swayze participated in the first 'Stand Up To Cancer' telethon event where
he asked the public to donate whatever they could to the cause.
During the televised event, Swayze gave a powerful and moving speech about his own experience
with the disease and shared his hopes for the future.
Afterward, he received a standing ovation from the audience, who were clearly touched
by his words.
Even though he was forced to contend with such a debilitating illness, Swayze seemed
to remain in good spirits and looked as if he was fairing pretty well given his diagnosis.
At the time, he had been undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments, and it seemed to be
helping.
Later that year, he announced that the treatments continued to be a success and that he had
endured beyond everyone's expectations – his doctors included.
Even though he was only given a few weeks to live at the start of the year, he still
looked completely healthy even six months later.
As such, people continued to hold out hope that he might still pull through and overcome
the disease.
A Turn For The Worse
Sadly, Swayze's condition began to rapidly deteriorate in 2009.
While he continued to tell the press that he felt relatively confident about his chances
of beating the disease, he admitted that his cancer had taken a turn for the worse and
had become much more severe than it was previously.
In January 2009, Swayze was admitted to the hospital after coming down with pneumonia,
but he made a full recovery and left the hospital the following week.
Even so, Swayze's cancer continued to spread, and he ended up passing away on September
14, 2009, while surrounded by his loved ones.
Swayze's Last Words
Even though Swayze spent his final days at one of his favorite places, his family's ranch
home in California, those days were not very easy for him.
A close friend described him as looking 'sickly', 'riddled with injuries', 'emaciated', and
visibly in a great deal of pain.
Before he slipped into a coma, his wife Lisa Niemi touched his hand and told him that she
loved him.
He responded by saying, 'I Love You'.
Those three words ended up being the last that he ever spoke.
In her memoir, 'Worth Fighting For', which she published shortly after her husband's
death, Lisa Niemi revealed that even though Patrick was in a coma, she never once left
his side and continued to speak to him, listen to music with him, and she even slept with
her head planted on his shoulder.
In the years since his passing, Swayze's widow has been working with the Pancreatic Cancer
Action Network to help raise awareness and funding to help combat the disease and provide
support for those suffering from it.
Patrick's Enduring Legacy
Swayze always desired to become a father, and in his autobiographic l book, 'The Time
Of My Life', he mentioned that not having children was, in fact, one of the biggest
regrets of his life.
In the memoir, Swayze revealed that ever since he could remember, he wanted to be a dad – he
desired to be the best father that he could be, the king of dad that his own father had
been for him.
He always figured that he had plenty of time to make that dream come true, but in the end,
his time was cut short before he could achieve this life-affirming goal.
While it's tragic that he never got the chance to bring a child into this world that he could
be remembered through, Patrick Swayze's legacy lives on in various other ways.
Most notably, the fact that he worked non-stop with such dedication despite his diagnosis
is a huge inspiration for others that are currently waging their own wars with cancer.
Swayze will also continue to be remembered for his film roles.
Take Dirty Dancing, for example.
It was without a doubt one of the most iconic films of the 80s.
It won two Academy Awards, a Grammy, and earned Swayze a loyal following of fans that stuck
by his side until his death.
We think that Patrick probably wouldn't want us to focus on the negative.
Sure, his death was a painful thing to watch, and it no doubt caused a great deal of trauma
to his family and friends, but it's Swayze's life that we should really be celebrating.
Let's take a look a look back on his prolific life and career and pay him the respect that
he most assuredly deserves.
Swayze's Early Years
Patrick Swayze came into this world on August 18, 1952, in Houston, Texas.
His father, Jesse Swayze, was an engineering draftsman, while his mother, Patsy Swayze,
was a choreographer.
Patrick was the second oldest child of 5 and enjoyed a pretty ideal childhood and home
life along with his siblings.
From a very early age, Patrick expressed an interest in creative endeavors.
While he was still in high school, he took part in activities like ballet, ice-skating,
and theater.
Swayze shined whenever he expressed himself creatively, and he especially loved dance,
but sometimes his choices invited the ridicule of bullies.
But not only was Swayze a fan of the arts, but he was also a gifted athlete who played
football and studied martial arts such as aikido, karate, and taekwondo.
He had planned on going to college on a full football scholarship, but after he sustained
a knee energy, his playing career ended abruptly.
Since football was a no-go, Swayze decided to instead focus his efforts on ballet.
He relocated to New York City to finish his dance training, but even though he absolutely
loved to dance, once in New York, he realized that he also had an interest in acting.
Meeting His Soul Mate
In 1975, Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi, a dancer who had attended a dance school that
his mother ran, got married.
Lisa had previously moved to New York with Swayze in 1972 so that she, too, could pursue
a career in dance.
Niemi and Swayze were highly devoted to one another, and they shared a happy life together
until his passing in 2009.
Throughout Patrick's film career, Niemi appeared on-screen alongside her husband in a handful
of films, including 1987s Steel Dawn and 1989s Next of Kin.
From Dance School To The Academy Awards
Swayze first danced professionally in 'Disney on Parade' as Prince Charming.
After playing the character Danny Zuko for a turn in the original Broadway production
of Grease, Swayze made his film debut with a minor role in the 1979 film Skatetown U.S.A.
He then made his TV debut in a 1981 episode of M*A*S*H, portraying a soldier that was
diagnosed with Leukemia.
Swayze went on to land a handful of supporting roles in films and a leading role in the television
miniseries North & South: Book 1 in 1985.
He scored his big breakthrough role in 1985 when he played the dance instructor Johnny
Castle in the blockbuster film Dirty Dancing, which earned him his first Golden Globe nod.
He was honored with another nomination after portraying Sam Wheat in the 1990 hit film
Ghost.
Unfortunately, his next few films didn't fare well with critics or audiences and are largely
forgettable.
In 2003, he made a return to Broadway, filling in for the lead role of Billy Flynn in the
highly-applauded revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical Chicago.
In 2004, Patrick played a dance instructor in the prequel film to Dirty Dancing, Dirty
Dancing: Havanna Nights.
Swayze's final screen credit was in the 2009 film Powder Blue as the character, Velvet
Larry.
While Patrick Swayze's battle with cancer was absolutely excruciating to watch play
out, he never once gave up hope nor did he ever stop fighting.
It's that kind of perseverance and dedication that Swayze maintained throughout his lifetime
and made him the success story that he inevitably became.
Like we already mentioned before, he would have never wanted us to remember him only
for his darkest moments at the end of his life.
Rather, he would probably prefer it if we looked back on his life and career by focusing
on all of the highlights.
What's your favorite memory of Patrick Swayze?
Let us know in the comments section below.
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