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Actors Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in the 1986 movie hit 'Dirty Dancing' LOS ANGELES, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Actor Patrick Swayze said he was scared, angry and "going through hell" with pancreatic cancer, but a year after being diagnosed, he was determined to keep going.

"You can bet I'm going through hell," the "Dirty Dancing" star said in his first television interview since his January 2008 diagnosis with one of the most deadly forms of cancer.

"There's a lot of fear here ... Yeah, I'm scared. Yeah, I'm angry. Yeah, I'm (asking) why me?" Swayze, 56, told Barbara Walters in an interview to be broadcast on ABC on Wednesday.

Swayze, who was forced last month to deny tabloid stories that he was near death, told Walters that doctors diagnosed stage 4 pancreatic cancer last January, with the cancer having already spread to his liver.

The American Cancer Society says pancreatic cancer has only a five percent, five-year survival rate.

Swayze said his response was "Watch me! You watch what I pull off."

The actor and dancer underwent an aggressive course of chemotherapy and treatment with an experimental drug. He then stunned the industry by starting to film a new TV detective series "The Beast" while undergoing chemotherapy and without taking pain-killers.

"I think everybody thought I was out of my mind, you know, thinking I'm gonna pull off a TV show," he said of the 12-hour work days, mostly in cold, Chicago night conditions.

"When you're shooting you can't do drugs," Swayze said of his decision not to take pain-killers. "I can't do Hydrocodone or Vicodin or these kinds of things that take the edge off of it, 'cause it takes the edge off of your brain."

In five months' filming, Swayze missed a day and a half of work. "The Beast" starts airing on the A&E cable TV network on Jan. 15.

Swayze is known around the world for his role as the dance instructor in the 1987 coming of age movie "Dirty Dancing" which inspired hit stage shows in London, Australia and Canada. He went on to star with Demi Moore in 1990 film romance "Ghost."

Married to wife Niemi for 33 years, Swayze said he was stunned by the outpouring of love from fans since his diagnosis, although he does not want to be a poster-boy for living with cancer.

"I keep dreaming of a future, a future with a long and healthy life, not lived in the shadow of cancer but in the light," Swayze told Walters.

"What winning is to me, is not giving up, is no matter what's thrown at me, I can take it. And I can keep going," he said.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, Editing by Sandra Maler)