Patrick Swayze Dies After Battle With Cancer Aged 57

Hollywood actor Patrick Swayze, 57, died last night after living with pancreatic cancer for almost two years. The star of Dirty Dancing and Ghost died with his family at his side, his publicist said.

Swayze went public with his illness last spring, and worked as he had treatment. He was writing a memoir and recently made The Beast, a well-received cable TV series about a veteran FBI agent.

Days ago it was reported he had left hospital to be at home with his wife, Lisa Niemi, his boyhood sweetheart from Houston.

Swayze had said that he opted not to use painkillers while making The Beast because they would have taken the edge off his performance, but he never shied away from the fact time might be running out. When he first went public, some reports gave him weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC TV's Barbara Walters early this year. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

Swayze will be best remembered for Dirty Dancing, made in 1987. As the snake-hipped dance instructor Johnny Castle, he taught gawky teenager Frances "Baby" Houseman to dance, and won the hearts of teenage girls with the immortal line, "No one puts baby in the corner."

The 1990 film Ghost cemented Swayze as a favorite, playing a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee through a spirit played by Whoopi Goldberg. After early success, his personal life took a turn for the worse. Unable to cope with his father's death and sister's suicide in 1994, he repeatedly lapsed into alcoholism. In 1996 he broke both legs in a horse-riding stunt; in 2000 he made an emergency landing in his Cessna, and appeared to attempt to remove a crate of drink from the plane.

But in recent years he had made a comeback, playing Nathan Detroit in the West End revival of Guys And Dolls in 2006.

Jennifer Grey, who co-starred with Swayze in Dirty Dancing, said in a statement: "Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace. Gorgeous and strong, he was a real cowboy with a tender heart.

"He was fearless and insisted on always doing his own stunts, so it was not surprising to me that the war he waged on his cancer was so courageous and dignified.

Actor Rob Lowe paid tribute saying he had "lost a brother". Speaking in Toronto at the premiere of his new film The Invention of Lying, Lowe said: "Patrick lived a thousand lifetimes in one lifetime.

"He was an expert dancer, he wrote hit songs, he starred in hit movies, he was an amazing horseman.

"But the thing I will remember him most for was his amazing love affair with his wife Lisa."

Lowe added: "He played my brother twice, in The Outsiders when I was 17, and then in Youngblood.

"Tonight I lost a brother."