Patrick Swayze dies after battle with cancer

PATRICK Swayze’s Dirty Dancing co-star Jennifer Grey led tributes today after he lost his two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Swayze, 57, died with family members by his side.

Jennifer Grey said: “Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace.

“Gorgeous and strong, he was a real cowboy with a tender heart. He was fearless and insisted on always doing his own stunts, so it was not surprising to me that the war he waged on his cancer was so courageous and dignified.”

Patrick Swayze shot to fame in 1987 with his performance as dance instructor Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing, a coming-of-age story set in a Catskills resort in New York.

The quirky 1990 romantic film Ghost cemented his status as a screen heart throb.

He played a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Demi Moore) through a spirit played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Goldberg said today: “Patrick was a really good man, a funny man and one to whom I owe much that I can’t ever repay.

“I believe in Ghost’s message, so he’ll always be near.”

Swayze kept on working even after it was disclosed that he had a particularly deadly form of cancer.

He starred in The Beast, a drama series about the FBI, and said he and his wife Lisa Niemi were working on a memoir.