Patrick Swayze Gives Himself "2 Years to Live"

We know him best from films like Ghost and Dirty Dancing, movies that epitomized the 1980s and the "young" Patrick Swayze. Now, at 56 years old and suffering from pancreatic cancer, Swayze faces the biggest challenge of his life and has calmly proclaimed that he expects to live for only two more years. Swayze did an interview with Barbara Walters recently in which he said as much, indicating that he was happy to beat the estimate of 5 weeks – the time doctors indicated that they expected him to live – but certainly didn’t expect to keep denying the inevitable.

For patients with state 4 pancreatic cancer, which is Swayze’s diagnosis, there is a 5% survival rate beyond 5 years. Said the actor: "I’d say five years is pretty wishful thinking. 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. You can bet I’m going through hell. There’s a lot of fear here … Yeah, I’m scared. Yeah, I’m angry. Yeah, I’m [thinking] why me? Am I dying? Am I giving up? Am I on my death bed? Am I saying goodbye to people? No way."

Regardless, Swayze continues to fight and will be remembered for a number of awards and movies. He has been nominated three times for Golden Globes and has starred in such movies as Red Dawn, Dirty Dancing, Road House, Ghost, Point break, Donnie Darko and, most recently, the television series "The Beast."