Patrick Swayze, the complete and utter dreamboat that we know and love from mega-classic fame Dirty Dancing and Ghost, passed away Monday after a 20-month battle with advanced pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

Swayze referred to himself as “a miracle dude” six months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2008 and outliving his prognosis. Even while undergoing treatment, he went through with plans to star in the drama television series for A&E, The Beast. He filmed a complete season of the television series and insisted on continuing the series despite his condition. When speaking to The New York Times last October, he said, “How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you’re a dead man? … You go to work.”

Swayze opened up about his illness to Barbara Walters during a one-hour special on ABC a week before the television series began. He told Ms. Walters, “I keep my heart and my soul and my spirit open to miracles.” He said that he was not going to pursue every experimental treatment that came along and that if he were to “spend so much time chasing staying alive,” he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the time he had left.

Patrick Swayze’s mind and heart has always been in the right place throughout his illness and the world lost a truly inspiring man who not only gave us the wonderful performances in Dirty Dancing, Ghost, The Outsiders and many more movies that we still watch, re-watch and crave; he also gave us a glimpse into a life that was truly lived and a glimpse at a man with a tremendous will to live and who spent the time that he had live doing what he truly loved and surrounded himself with his family and loved ones.

[Images via INF Daily]