COVER ST ORY
“He was
a cowboy
with a
tender
heart,
gorgeous
and
st rong.”
— Jennifer Grey
“Patrick was
proud we didn’t
live in Beverly
Hills,” says Lisa.
“He said we
chose to live on a
ranch rather than
with monkeys
in a cage!”
plicated, to say the least. “She used to spur
him on,” says Don, who was born six years
after his brother. “He was everything to my
mom. When he would leave the room, she
would brag, ‘That’s my beautiful older son.’ ”
It was at Patsy’s dance studio where Pat-
rick met Lisa, who was also a student there.
“The moment I looked in his eyes, every-
thing came alive,” she recalls. “What I saw
was pure gold.” Five years later, in 1975, the
couple married in her family’s backyard,
with the reception at Patsy ’s studio.
Patrick and Lisa moved to New York City,
where he took over the leading role of Dan-
ny Zuko in Broadway’s Grease in 1976. Film
parts were harder to find, until Francis Ford
Coppola cast him as C. Thomas Howell’s big
brother in 1983’s The Outsiders. Their on-
screen bond mirrored their real-life connec-
tion. “He was one of my closest friends and
mentors when I needed it the most,” says C.
Thomas, who went on to co-star with Pat-
rick in Red Dawn and Grandview, U. S. A. “He
really always took special care of me.”
THE TIME OF HIS LIFE
In 1987, Patrick landed a role that showcased
both his fierce physicality and his emotional
vulnerability: Johnny, the ballroom teacher
who sweeps Jennifer Grey’s Baby off her feet
in Dirty Dancing. “Patrick was super hungry
for connection,” Jennifer says. “His heart
and my heart got along really well.”
A string of box-office hits followed, includ-
ing 1990’s Ghost, a supernatural romance
that shone a spotlight on Patrick’s “beauti-
ful balance between strength and softness,”
says co-star Demi Moore, who played his
haunted widow. But Patrick didn’t want to
be pigeonholed as a romantic leading man.
“He wanted to be taken seriously,” Pat-
rick’s longtime assistant, Rosemary Hy-
gate, tells Closer. “He was prepared to go in
strange directions” — like playing a drag
queen in 1995’s To Wong Foo, Thanks for Ev-
erything! Julie Newmar — “and the wonder-
ful thing is his fans embraced it.”
Offscreen, Patrick endured more difficult
times. “Both of us loved kids and always in-
tended to have kids,” says Lisa. “I did become
pregnant, but I had a miscarriage. It was
very heartbreaking.” Adds Don, “It crushed
him. You could tell he would’ve been a great
dad. Just as an uncle, you could see it.”
Patrick developed a severe drinking prob-
lem, perhaps to mask the pain of his child-
hood — or the symptoms of an undiagnosed
mental illness. Says Lisa, “Buddy would be
out there being bubbly and fun, then as soon
as he was by himself, he would just crash.”
As Don remembers, “I did some reading,
and I came up with this thing, bipolar II dis-
order, and Patrick and I both agreed, ‘Wow,
that sounds just like us.’ ”
During his manic highs, “Patrick didn’t eat
or sleep a lot,” his manager, Kate Edwards,
tells Closer. Agrees assistant Hygate, “He ate
popcorn, smoked cigarettes and drank cof-
fee. He had a tremendous energ y.”
But Patrick’s most dangerous vice was al-
cohol. “He had a different personality when
he drank,” Lisa reveals. “He was the nicest
man on the planet unless he’d had a drink.”
The situation reached a breaking point
when Lisa moved out of their New Mexico
ranch for a year in the 2000s. “I told him, ‘I
20 August 26, 2019 CLOSER
