R.I.P. Patrick Swayze

This Christmas, like always, I'll decorate a barstool, gather 'round, and sing one of my favorite holiday songs: "Let's Have a Patrick Swayze Christmas." Then I'll settle in with a DVD of Roadhouse because if Patrick Swayze has taught me anything, it's that a good action sequence does belong at Christmas.

I was going to write about something else this week, but I decided to comment on the unfortunate passing of Patrick Swayze. I'm sure that anything I have to say has already been written elsewhere, but I think he's someone who deserves to have nice things written about him. The outpouring of sentiment this week has had as much to do with Swayze's memorable moments on screen, as with the fact that off screen he seemed like a truly decent guy. He was married to the same woman for over 30 years, promoted dance (before it was cool again), and possessed a refreshing sense of humor about himself and his films.

Swayze is not my favorite actor, but he is someone whose films I simply enjoy watching - someone I am glad to spend a couple of hours with on a rainy day. There are a lot of talented and popular actors for whom I can't say the same. Though he had a sense of humor about his image, when he was on screen he was totally committed to each role and that makes him worth watching.

He played a lover (Ghost) and a fighter (Red Dawn), and occasionally something completely off the radar (Donnie Darko). I think that if he had been born a couple of decades earlier, he could have been a musical star at MGM. For some, Swayze is best remembered as the "sensitive man of action" he portrayed in films such as Roadhouse and Point Break. However, I'll always identify him first and foremost as Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing. (I'm sure this is a gender and/or generational distinction since most women my age have had Dirty Dancing tattooed on their conciousness, whether wittingly or not!)

As a tribute to Swayze's talent, I'm going to recommend a couple of films I have not yet mentioned in this post: Three Wishes and To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, both from 1995. Neither of these films typecasts Swayze in the sensitive lover or sensitive fighter roles he was known for, but they are both quite charming and perfect for watching on a rainy day.