It’s almost been 15 years since Patrick Swayze’s tragic death, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and his heartbreaking final words are a prime example of how he lived his life.
The remake of one of the Hollywood star’s most memorable films, Road House is now available to stream, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. At the New York City premiere earlier this week, the star was honored with a tribute reading: “In memory of Patrick Swayze whose legacy of strength and greatness reminds us all to BE NICE.”
Patrick Swayze’s heartbreaking final words
The Dirty Dancing star met his wife writer and director Lisa Niemi, when he was just 18 years old. They went on to marry in 1975 but never had any children.
They locked eyes at his mother’s dance studio, and after high school they moved to New York and landed spots at the Joffrey Ballet.
Broadway’s Grease director, Tom Moore, said they were the “perfect couple”.
His wife, who was a talented dancer, is known to have inspired Swayze’s Dirty Dancing soundtrack song She’s Like The Wind.
In her 2011 book, titled Worth Fighting For, she shared the couple’s final words to each other.
“My last words to Patrick? ‘I love you’, and those were his last words to me.” she wrote
In 2009, not long after the star’s tragic death, Lisa said she wished she’d told Patrick she loved him more often while speaking at the Maria Shriver’s women’s conference.
“I am so grateful for what I had and my connection to him, and part of me believes that I will see him again,” she said.
The movie star would gush over his wife through interviews, showing how the celebrity couple were always on cloud nine when it came to love.
He told People in 2007: “I knew she was the smartest chick I’d ever met in my life.
“For a long time I didn’t feel like I deserved her.”
The duo not only were together off-screen but worked together in Hollywood. They co-wrote and acted alongside each other in a play, which later became the 2003 film One Last Dance, which Lisa directed.
Lisa’s role in Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing, one of Patrick’s biggest films of his career, also saw Lisa support him as he prepared for the role.
They’d practice the routines over and over, and conduct rehearsals in a hotel room while filming.
He said: “She was there a lot because I depend on Lisa.
“My most important rehearsals were with Lisa in a hotel room. We’d practice over and over and over.”
Patrick added: “Lisa and I have built just about every character I’ve done. You have to understand, we have an ease … I’d been married a long time when I did Dirty Dancing, and it just gave me so much to bring.”
She’d fly him to his treatments
After Patrick was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Lisa would fly him to his chemotherapy treatments at Stanford University. The pair were both licensed pilots and often flew in the skies together.
At the time, doctors thought he had a positive prognosis, but sadly, 18 months after being told the news, his health took a turn for the worst.
Aged 57, Patrick Swayze died of the disease with his wife Lisa by his side.
They had been married for 34 years.
Lisa, reflecting on his death, said: “I like to think he knew I was there.
“I was always afraid I’d freak out. To have your soulmate leave you, it was definitely overwhelming, but at the same time, I knew he was in a better place because he had used every ounce of that body.
“It was holding him down, and he needed to leave it behind. And that was very, very clear to me in the end.”
Gyllenhaal said Lisa and Patrick were ‘so supportive’
Jake Gyllenhaal and Patrick Swayze first met when they worked together on the sci-fi thriller, Donnie Darko, as he told Entertainment Tonight at the Road House remake premiere he had always been ‘so supportive.’
“I mean, from the jump, from the moment I met Patrick – we worked on the [2001] movie Donnie Darko – and from all the scenes we filmed and throughout the years, him and his wife, Lisa [Niemi] – and even Lisa to this day – have been just loving and supportive,” he said, calling them a “beautiful couple”.
Earlier this month, the Nightcrawler star took to Instagram to honor the star.
In a throwback photo, the star penned: “I’ve never stopped being a fan.
“He was such a talent and I continue to have so much respect and admiration for what he put out into the world. I’ll never forget his kindness to me when I was starting out— he didn’t have to take the time, but he always did.”
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