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Actor Patrick Swayze died at age 57 today after a two year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Patrick’s rep issued this statement:

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months.”

Recently Swayze made waves on A&E in his dramatic police series “The Beast,” but many of us came to love Swayze for his now iconic roles in films like Red Dawn, Road House, Point Break, Ghost, Donnie Darko and many more.

The Texas native missed only one day of work while filming the series “The Beast” on A&E. “One thing I’m not going to do is chase staying alive,” he told interviewer Barbara Walters at the time. “You spend so much time chasing staying alive, you won’t live.”

In 2006, the American Cancer Society (ACS) predicted that 33,730 Americans (17,150 men and 16,580 women) would be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; the ACS also estimated that 32,300 American men and women would die of pancreatic cancer in 2006.