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Blip.fm users were the first I saw putting up this story, but the only major news website I could find at first to confirm it was Faux Noise Fox News. If they told me the sun rises in the east, I'd want to check CNN and MSNBC to be certain.
But now the latter site has truly confirmed it here, straight from the man's own publicist: Actor/singer Patrick Swayze has died today, just weeks after his 57th birthday, of the pancreatic cancer that has been ravaging his poor body for more than a year. Most remember him for his song "She's Like the Wind," or for his star-making turns in era-defining 1980s films such as Dirty Dancing with Jennifer Grey or Ghost with Demi Moore. But the role where he stood out most for me was probably his most outrageous: he was one of three big-name actors willing to tweak their masculine big-screen-hero images by playing gay drag queens in the film adaptation of the off-Broadway hit play, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. (Neither IMDB's nor Wikipedia's pages on the film credit it as a stage adaptation, but I happened to be living in NYC just after its author, Douglas Beane, finished trying it out on the boards there.)
Patrick's character, Vida Bohéme, was by far the class act of the three (Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo's characters were decidedly more earthy), although John looked far more convincing as a woman than either Pat or Wes. From all accounts, this was a reflection of the way Pat was in real life. The story in the film is only superficially about cross-dressing and homosexuality, though; its real subject is finding the freedom—and the courage—to be yourself, and being willing to accept someone else's eccentricities and see them as a person. The film plays like a Yank version of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the Aussie indie flick which preceded it by barely a year and has a similar plot (except for one of the three being a post-operative transsexual).
For this alone, I find Mr. Swayze's memory worthy of respect, his passing of note...and his loss of mourning. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to all who knew and loved him in this most difficult hour, especially his family. Goodbye, sir, and thank you from a world full of misfits and oddballs, sexual and otherwise.
But now the latter site has truly confirmed it here, straight from the man's own publicist: Actor/singer Patrick Swayze has died today, just weeks after his 57th birthday, of the pancreatic cancer that has been ravaging his poor body for more than a year. Most remember him for his song "She's Like the Wind," or for his star-making turns in era-defining 1980s films such as Dirty Dancing with Jennifer Grey or Ghost with Demi Moore. But the role where he stood out most for me was probably his most outrageous: he was one of three big-name actors willing to tweak their masculine big-screen-hero images by playing gay drag queens in the film adaptation of the off-Broadway hit play, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. (Neither IMDB's nor Wikipedia's pages on the film credit it as a stage adaptation, but I happened to be living in NYC just after its author, Douglas Beane, finished trying it out on the boards there.)
Patrick's character, Vida Bohéme, was by far the class act of the three (Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo's characters were decidedly more earthy), although John looked far more convincing as a woman than either Pat or Wes. From all accounts, this was a reflection of the way Pat was in real life. The story in the film is only superficially about cross-dressing and homosexuality, though; its real subject is finding the freedom—and the courage—to be yourself, and being willing to accept someone else's eccentricities and see them as a person. The film plays like a Yank version of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the Aussie indie flick which preceded it by barely a year and has a similar plot (except for one of the three being a post-operative transsexual).
For this alone, I find Mr. Swayze's memory worthy of respect, his passing of note...and his loss of mourning. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to all who knew and loved him in this most difficult hour, especially his family. Goodbye, sir, and thank you from a world full of misfits and oddballs, sexual and otherwise.
