The actor Patrick Swayze has died at the age of 57 after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He began his career as a dancer, before injury forced a side-step into acting. Patrick Swayze's career took him from the heights of pin-up fame in Dirty Dancing to left-field character acting in the likes of Donnie Darko
Tue 15 Sep 2009 05.40 EDT First published on Tue 15 Sep 2009 05.40 EDT
Patrick Swayze pictured in 1990, at the height of his fame
One of Swayze's first film roles was in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders (1983). Swayze was amongst many young cast members poised on the cusp of fame, including Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise
Patrick Swayze's muscular physique was much in evidence in his screen roles – here he is in Road House (1989), the story of a tough bouncer hired to tame a dodgy bar
Point Break (1991), Kathryn Bigelow's tale of macho scrapping on surfboards, was another stand-out role for Swayze. Here he is with fellow wave-fanatic (and undercover detective) Keanu Reeves
A year later Swayze teamed up with two slightly less likely co-stars, Om Puri and Pauline Collins, for Roland Joffé's Indian heroism drama City of Joy (1992)
But Swayze's recent film career didn't sustain the good run. He starred in an extra-long and critically-panned TV film version of King Solomon's Mines in 2004
Patrick Swayze turned Anglophile towards the end of his career – here he is with wife Lisa Niemi at the premiere of Rowan Atkinson comedy Keeping Mum in 2005
Patrick Swayze, who died yesterday at the age of 57, was married for 34 years to his childhood sweetheart, Lisa Niemi. Here, they pose with their dogs, poodle Lucas and Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy Kumasai, at their ranch in New Mexico in May 2009
