Patrick Swayze, the early years

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‘For a long time in my career as an actor out here I kept my dancing quie t-- just to escape a certain level of narrow-mindedness,’ Patrick Swayze told The Times’ Lewis Segal in 1983. ‘But now I think I won’t be [labeled] ‘dancer-turned-actor’ but ‘actor-with-other-talents.’ ‘

In 1987, ‘Dirty Dancing’ would make him a star.

The Daily Mirror, The Times’ blog about Southern California history, has the entire interview and a movie review from the paper’s then-critic, Sheila Benson.

-- Keith Thursby