‘Dirty Dancing’ Producer Talks Patrick Swayze’s Fighting Spirit

Patrick Swayze looked good as he stepped on to a plane, flying him for more treatment in his battle against pancreatic cancer, yesterday.

The “Dirty Dancing” star is battling the disease, first revealed in March. Today, Access introduces you to a long time friend of the star’s who reveals new insight into Patrick’s fighting spirit.

“When Patrick wants something, he works on it,” friend Linda Gottlieb, the woman who produced “Dirty Dancing” told Access. “He knows his body, he knows how to control his body ferociously, so if anybody can postpone death, if not win over, it it’s Patrick.”

Gottlieb is devastated over Patrick’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis. She has been good friends with him for 22 years.

“I wrote him a long e-mail telling him how much he meant to me in my life,” she said. “Without Patrick Swayze, that movie would have been unimaginable.”

Still an international phenomenon 20 years later, “Dirty Dancing’s” success was thanks to the undeniable on-screen chemistry of Swayze and Jennifer Grey. It’s hard to imagine the roles almost went to Billy Zane and Kyra Sedgwick.

And unlike Johnny and Baby in real life, it was anything but love at first sight.

“When Jennifer found out Patrick was playing the part, she was not a happy camper. They had performed together in ‘Red Dawn,’ and I gather that was not a wonderful, working relationship,” Linda revealed. “They had very different temperaments. Jennifer is a spontaneous girl. She would be very emotional. She would cry easily. Patrick is the exact opposite of that.”