Lisa Niemi

Lisa Niemi (born Lisa Anne Haapaniemi) is a dancer, actress, choreographer and director and the widow of Patrick Swayze. Niemi was born in Houston, Texas, where she was raised and trained as a dancer. She went on to attend the Houston Ballet Dance Company, where she graduated in 1974. She later moved to New York City to continue studying dance, focusing on ballet and contemporary styles that shaped her early career.

She began working professionally as a dancer and actress in the 1980s, appearing in small film and television roles like Slam Dance (1987) and Steel Dawn (1987) before gaining wider attention after working on projects with Swayze. Her visibility increased as she collaborated with him both on screen and behind the scenes, helping establish her as a creative force in Hollywood.

Niemi later appeared on television series such as Superboy and The Beast. In 2003, she cowrote, directed and starred in One Last Dance alongside Swayze, and the pair later cowrote the memoir The Time of My Life (2009) shortly before Swayze’s death.

Niemi married Swayze in 1975 after the two met as teenagers. The couple remained together until he died from pancreatic cancer in 2009. She went on to marry jeweler Albert DePrisco in 2014.