Patrick Swayze

""Nobody puts baby in a corner." "You know that's a line from--" [emphatically] "Swayze movie! Swayze always gets a pass!""

- Dean and Sam Winchester, Supernatural

Patrick Swayze (August 18, 1952 -- September 14, 2009) was an acclaimed shirtless actor.

To begin with, he was the product of a dance instructor and a rodeo champion. Plainly, his destiny as an all-American, ballet-dancing, Judo-kicking beefcake was written in the stars.

Swayze's career began as an understudy for Danny Zuko in a Broadway production of Grease, eventually leading to great deal of TV and film work. He was a peripheral member of the Brat Pack (mainly via his role in The Outsiders, alongside... well, pretty much every young male actor who made it big in The Eighties).

His breakout role came as Orry Main in the North and South TV miniseries, followed by his iconic performance as Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing. Its wild success ended up Typecasting the actor, which resulted in several flops, the most successful of which was (ironically) Road House.

His fame started to wane in The Nineties, though he did make an incongruous appearance here and there, such as in Donnie Darko. Swayze landed a starring role in the A&E cop drama The Beast right before being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the only thing that would dare trifle with him. He died at age 57.

Cracked prepared a compelling brief for why he is the second greatest actor in the world.

Related tropes:

 * Eighties Hair: Though he has short-length hair in the majority of his films, many fans identify him with the Power Mullet.
 * Badass: Because Pain Don't Hurt.
 * Famously, he once performed an emergency landing of his plane on a paved residential street. Naturally, he emerged unhurt.
 * Determinator: He worked on The Beast while undergoing chemotherapy. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled because Swayze was unable to promote it himself.
 * Greater Houston
 * Happily Married: He was married to wife Lisa Niemi from 1975 until he passed away in 2009.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Studied ballet in high school, shrugging off the weak-minded fools who claimed it wasn't manly.

Notable film roles:

 * Jed Eckert in Red Dawn (1984)
 * Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing (1987)
 * Nomad in Steel Dawn (1987)
 * James Dalton in Road House (1989 Razzie nominee for Worst Actor)
 * Sam Wheat in Ghost (1990 Golden Globe and Saturn Award nominee for Best Actor)
 * Bodhi in Point Break (1991)
 * Vida Boheme in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar (1995 Golden Globe nominee for best actor)
 * Pecos Bill in Tall Tale (1995)
 * Jim Cunningham in Donnie Darko (2001)