'Dancing With The Stars' Cast to Honor Swayze

Monica Rizzo of People.com is reporting that in honor of the late Patrick Swayze, Dancing with the Stars participants will perform a special tribute on its Sept. 23 live results show.

"We have some very fond memories of [the late actor] coming to help us our when we were a tiny little show way back when," Dancing's executive producer Conrad Green says.

Swayze died of pancreatic cancer on Monday at the age of 57.

Patrick Wayne Swayze was an actor, dancer and singer-songwriter who has been in dozens of films and is the recipient of several industry accolades. He was best-known for his roles as romantic leading men in the films Dirty Dancing and Ghost and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries.  Dirty Dancing was the first film to sell one million copies on video, and as of 2007, has earned over $300 million worldwide and spawned several alternate versions, ranging from a television series to stage productions to a computer game. Swayze received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the role and also sang one of the songs on the soundtrack, "She's Like the Wind," which he had originally co-written with Stacy Widelitz for the film Grandview, U.S.A. The song became a top ten hit and has been covered by other artists, such as David Hasselhoff, and in 2006 was converted into a hip-hop version by Lumidee, who took it to the top of the charts in Germany.

Swayze made his West End theatre début in the musical Guys and Dolls as Nathan Detroit July 2006, alongside Neil Jerzak, and remained in the role until November 2006. His previous appearances on the Broadway stage had included productions of Goodtime Charley and Chicago.

His last role was the lead in an A&E TV series, The Beast, which premiered on January 15, 2009. Owing to a prolonged decline in health, Swayze was unable to promote the series, and on June 15, 2009, Entertainment Tonight reported that the show had been cancelled.

Swayze made a guest appearance on Dancing's inaugural U.S. season in 2005, teaching friend and fellow actor John O'Hurley a few dance moves in rehearsal. He also came to the show and supported O'Hurley by attending the season 1 finale.

"He was one of the few people to integrate dance with being an A-list actor," Green says. "He inspired many people and many of our pros to dance. We want to honor the great moments he's brought to film by getting our dancers to do their interpretation to some music from his films."

 

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