RIP Patrick Swayze

Very sad. So very sad. He fought the good fight, and now is in a much better place. RIP.

Patrick Swayze lost his battle with pancreatic cancer Monday. He was 57. "Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," his rep tells PEOPLE in a statement. A gifted dancer, a rugged outdoorsman, a romantic leading man and a loving husband, Swayze was also, as his brother Don put it, "a warrior" in his cancer fight. The actor continued working on his A&E series The Beast even as he underwent chemotherapy – and never lost hope. About his prognosis, he did admit in a Barbara Walters interview that aired in January, "There's a lot of fear here. Yeah, I'm scared. Yeah, I'm angry. Yeah, I'm [asking], 'Why me?' " A month before, Swayze had issued a statement to PEOPLE in regard to speculation about his health, saying that such questions "cast a negative shadow on the positive and good fight I'm fighting." [people]