We have very few actors today that are seen as iconic in the old Hollywood tradition. I’m not sure I see Patrick Swayze as that but there are a couple of his movies that definitely stick in one’s mind and won’t let go and, man, could he dance. Several of his films are real romances, too, in our genre definition of the term, which is an important distinction for me.
To this day, I can’t pass by a viewing of Dirty Dancing on TV without watching the ending dance number even though I don’t count it as one of my favorite movie. There is just something about the impact of that scene. Now, the movie Road House, though – that one I’ve watched several times. I won’t say I love it but it definitely has something. Ghost, on the other hand, well, you know my feeling about tear-jerkers, but it’s definitely a good, solid romantic movie.
I could go on, but I ran across something on in a post on Big Hollywood earlier today that says it all in terms of him as a man and an actor:
We don’t know a whole lot about Swayze’s personal life, which was another big reason to like him, but he was married to the same woman, Lisa Niemi, for 34 years. In the real world what that says about the character of a man is impressive. In Hollywood, it says everything.