Amazing UNTOLD STORY

FRIENDS AND FAMILY SHARE MEMORIES OF THE ACTOR AND DANCER NEARLY 15 YEARS AFTER HIS UNTIMELY PASSING

- LOUISE A. BARILE

Frank Whiteley, Patrick Swayze’s bodyguard, was driving a Chevy Suburban through Sacramento’s rush hour traffic when the actor disappeared from the passenger seat. “I reach over to light a cigar and he wasn’t in the Suburban anymore,” Frank tells Closer. “We’re doing like 65, and I look out and see a shadow. He was standing on top of the Suburban with his arms raised out, doing the Titanic pose.”

"Nobody gives you a shoulder to cry on, because you seem to have so muchlike money and fame."

Before Patrick’s untimely passing nearly 15 years ago, the Houston native did a lot of living. He’d emerged after nearly a decade of forgettable roles as an A-list star with 1987’s Dirty Dancing and followed it up with crowd-pleasers, including Road House, Ghost and Point Break, making him one of the most popular actors of the early 1990s. Even more impressive are the obstacles Patrick overcame in his personal life, including an unhappy childhood, a turbulent marriage to his childhood sweetheart, and a long cycle of alcohol abuse. “Alcohol breeds self-pity, and I’ve resorted to it on and off throughout my life,” said the star. “But I kicked it by making other things more important.”

Growing up, Patrick, the eldest boy in a family of five children, played football, practiced martial arts, acted in school plays and danced classical ballet at the behest of his choreographer mother, Patsy. She was a demanding taskmaster. “Our mother made us feel that we were never good enough. If I did anything, I had to be the best because that’s what my mother expected of me,” said Patrick, who confessed he harbored anger toward his mother for years.