Patrick Swayze made several visits to the UAE over the last few years, thanks to his love of Arabian horses, which he raised on his ranch.
He was also once expected to play the lead role in The White Shaikh, a book by His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, about a western man who lived in the UAE in the 19th century.
When tabloid! met Patrick Swayze
Patrick Swayze: Life in pictures
The news of Sawyze's passing reminded me of our brief meeting more than a decade ago, in the UAE. The talented actor and dancer had been visiting for an equestrian event and as soon as my friends and I learned he was staying at a particular hotel, we drove right up and camped at the lobby.
Good connections meant we weren't kicked out right away. Swayze and his wife Lisa walked in a few hours later and we immediately walked up to them and pretended we were junior reporters at a school newspaper.
Despite the obvious fact that we didn't look like reporters and simply were excited teenagers, Swayze spent close to half an hour chatting to us and taking pictures.
Being star struck, I said, "I really love your movie!" to which he responded cheekily, "which one?" It sure broke the ice (and I was referring to Ghost)
Swayze was down to earth and very sweet and within a few minutes his parents joined us for conversation. I remember his dad invited us to their ranch back in the States and his wife insisted we visit.
Swayze's World
When Swayze first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live. "I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure."
In February, Swayze wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled, I'm Battling Cancer. How About Some Help, Congress? in which he urged senators and representatives to vote for the maximum funding for the National Institutes of Health to fight cancer.
Swayze also appeared in the September 2008 live television event Stand Up to Cancer, where he made this moving plea: "I keep dreaming of a future, a future with a long and healthy life, a life not lived in the shadow of cancer, but in the light. ... I dream that the word 'cure' will no longer be followed by the words 'is impossible'."
Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother. They met when he was 19 and she was 15.
A licenced pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center.
In Dirty Dancing, Swayze performed and co-wrote She's Like the Wind, inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."
Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze.
Swayze appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had a stay in rehab for alcohol abuse.
Swayze earned three Golden Globe nominations, for Dirty Dancing, Ghost and 1995's To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.