Patrick Swayze, who passed away yesterday after a 20-month bout with pancreatic cancer at age 57, had an electric, sincere screen presence that was aware of itself. While some of Swayze's best on-screen moments have been satirized many times over, the actor himself never teetered into self-parody, overly confident and sweat-dappled though his characters often were. His three most iconic TV and film moments speak for themselves, and we honor them after the jump.
The Outsiders (1983): Swayze's best emotional moment is in The Outsiders, the scene where his character Darrel hugs brother Soda (Rob Lowe) in the hospital upon realizing their other brother Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell) is still alive following a church fire. The rest of Swayze's cinematic gems may have been more iconic, but they never bested this.
Dirty Dancing (1987): If it's not the greatest dance scene in movie history, this clip from Dirty Dancing certainly gives us the most wonderfully disapproving Jerry Orbach stare of the past millennium. Swayze and Jennifer Grey are everywhere in this clip -- except, notably, the corner.
Ghost (1990): With just the Righteous Brothers, two handfuls of pottery, and Demi Moore, Swayze built one of the sexiest scenes of the past 25 years.
Saturday Night Live (1990): Patrick Swayze's Chippendales skit with a young Chris Farley, right at the time when SNL turned back into must-see television, could be the most fondly remembered single sketch of all time. Props for the assist by Jan Hooks and Kevin Nealon. (Pardon the poor quality of this clip.)
Point Break (1991): When a wooden-acting and wooden-colored Agent Utah (Keanu Reeves, of course) leapt from an airplane without a parachute to catch Bodhi (Swayze) and save Tyler (Lori Petty, come back to us), it was utterly infeasible, highly cinematic, and even more highly Swayze.