Patrick Swayze finally succumbed to pancreatic cancer yesterday at the age of 57. Reading some of the obits and tributes posted on the various news sites, it becomes clear that Swayze was the kind of actor/performer who really only existed on film. He had no political dimension, and, until he went public about his illness, no real personal one, either.

From CBC.ca:

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” said a statement released Monday evening in Los Angeles by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze confirmed in March 2008 that he was being treated for pancreatic cancer, after rumours arose that he was seriously ill and had just several weeks to live.

Trying to define him as a man, apart from the images, seems to be impossible, and so most writers have simply defaulted to the obvious: Dirty Dancing, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” the pottery scene from Ghost, “Wolverines!”, skydiving in Point Break, dancing with Chris Farley on SNL, etc. The Los Angeles Times tries valiantly to offer a portrait of a man who was “really never raised for this world,” whose “heartland ethics” kept him apart from most of Hollywood’s corruption. Others argue career-bests in a career singularly filled out with career-okays.

In the end, the approach taken by Newsweek’s Pop Vox blog – a string of Swayze clips from YouTube – seems the most appropriate.