Actor Ernest Borgnine died 8 July 2012 of renal failure. Born Ermes Effron Borgnine on 24 January 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut, he won an Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA award for his starring role in 1955’s Marty. He was also nominated for three Emmy Awards, in 1963, 1980, and 2009, for roles in McHale’s Navy, Hallmark Hall of Fame‘s “All Quiet on the Western Front”, and ER, respectively.
Born in Connecticut to Italian immigrant parents, the family lived in Milan, Italy, from the time Borgnine was 2 until he was 7, and then returned to Connecticut. In 1935, he joined the US Navy, and served on a destroyer during World War II. He left the Navy in 1945, and (according to this MSN obituary), “contemplated taking a job with an air conditioning company. But his mother persuaded him to enroll at the Randall School of Dramatic Arts in Hartford. He stayed four months, the only formal training he received.” After school, he acted on stage and television. One of his first roles was as the villain in a few episodes of Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1951). He was thereafter frequently cast in dark roles, including a memorable turn in From Here to Eternity (1953). His award-winning role as the lovelorn title character in Marty made him a star, but (in his words, quoted in the MSN piece), “The Oscar made me a star, and I’m grateful,” Borgnine told an interviewer in 1966. “But I feel had I not won the Oscar I wouldn’t have gotten into the messes I did in my personal life.” Those messes included four failed marriages, including one in 1964 to singer Ethel Merman that lasted less than six weeks.
In the early 1960s, he made his television career, starring in the comedy McHale’s Navy (1962-66). He also co-starred (from the back seat) in all 55 episodes of Airwolf (1984-86). He never typecast himself, saying in 1973 “I don’t care whether a role is 10 minutes long or two hours. And I don’t care whether my name is up there on top, either. Matter of fact, I’d rather have someone else get top billing; then if the picture bombs, he gets the blame, not me.”
IMDb credits him with more than 200 appearances on film and television. His genre roles include: thirteen episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-2011), Enemy Mind (2010), Touched by an Angel (2002), Early Edition (1999), Small Soldiers (1998), Mel (1998), Gattaca (1997), All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996), Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders (1996), Laser Mission (1989), L’isola del tesoro (1987), Highway to Heaven (1986), Alice in Wonderland (1985), Escape from New York (1981), Deadly Blessing (1981), Super Fuzz (1980), The Black Hole (1979), Ravagers (1979), all six episodes of Future Cop (1977), The Devil’s Rain (1975), The Neptune Factor (1973), Willard (1971), and two episodes of Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1951).
Borgnine was married and divorced four times, and is survived by his fifth wife, Tova (whom he married in 1973) and four children from prior marriages.