Ernest Borgnine (1917-2012)
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine was an highly successful actor who made over 100 movies in a career lasting over 50 years, and who also forged a parallel and equally successful television career.
With his thick-set build and looks of a heavyweight fighter, he was often cast in a secondary role in Ernest Borgnine movies as the gangster or Western heavy, but in the few films where he played the lead he displayed great acting skill and authority. In 1955 he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the lonely Italian butcher Marty Piletti in 'Marty'.
As well as his movie career he appeared on television from the outset of the new medium and he became well known as the character Quinton McHale in the 1962-66 series 'McHale's Navy'. He also co-starred in the mid-1980s adventure series 'Airwolf' and more recently he applied his talents to voiceovers in animated films.
Borgnine earned an Emmy nomination at the age of 92 for his work on the series 'ER' and in 2009 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
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Biography
He was born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut. His parents were immigrants from Italy and Borgnine spoke the language as a child and was all his life a fluent Italian speaker. His parents separated when he was two and he and his mother spent 5 years living in Italy. When his parents eventually reconciled the family returned to Hamden. In 1926 his sister Evelyn was born and by then the family name had been anglicised from Borgnino to Borgnine.He showed sporting promise and was a good boxer as a youth, but showed no inclination for acting. He graduated from New Haven's James Hillhouse High School in 1935 and worked for a while selling vegetables off the back of a truck. A U.S. Navy recruiting poster enticed him to enlist and he stayed in the Navy for 10 years with a short break in 1941 when he was discharged but almost immediately re-enlisted when the US entered the war.
He finally left the Navy in 1945 with the rank of Gunner's Mate 1st Class. For a short time he became a drifter, doing menial jobs in factories, but soon, on the advice of his mother, he decided to try acing as a career and with the GI Bill giving him the means to receive dramatic training, he studied for six months at the Randall School of Dramatic Art in Hartford.
After graduating in the spring of 1946 he joined the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia where he stayed for four years, learning his new trade, undertaking stagehand jobs around the theater, and after his first appearance on stage in 1947 in 'State of the Union', gaining invaluable experience playing a huge variety of roles.
His major step forward came in 1949 with his Broadway debut as a male nurse in 'Harvey'. It was the start of a long series of supporting roles as a character actor and it gave him the confidence to make the decision to chance his arm in a movie career. In 1951 he moved to California to start his new life.
He began his professional career in the new medium of television in two episodes of 'Captain Video and His Video Rangers' before making his movie debut with small roles in 'China Corsair' and 'The Whistle at Eaton Falls', both in 1951. With these and successive performances he began to forge a reputation as a capable and versatile actor and his career took a smart upward turn in 1953 when he was cast as the sadistic Sergeant James "Fatso" Judson in 'From Here to Eternity'. Because of his heavyweight boxer appearance, he played many other supporting thug roles over the next few years, including and outlaw in 'Johnny Guitar' in 1954, the menacing henchman, Coley Trimble, thrown by Spencer Tracy's judo in 'Bad Day at Black Rock' in 1955, and the chieftain jumping into a pit of wolves in 'The Vikings' in 1958.
He was in danger of being typecast for life but saved himself in 1955 when displayed his considerable acting skills as the inarticulate, likeable Italian butcher, Marty Piletti in 'Marty', which earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor and a Cannes Festival award.
His film career continued successfully in strong supporting roles, as in 'The Flight of the Phoenix' in 1965, supporting James Stewart and as an officer in Robert Aldrich's 'The Dirty Dozen' in 1967. One of the roles for which he is remembered was that of Dutch, in the 1969 Sam Peckinpah Western classic, 'The Wild Bunch' and in the 1970's his successes continued with 'The Poseidon Adventure' in 1972, 'Emperor of the North Pole' in the following year and 'Law and Disorder' in 1974. He was also hugely enjoyable as the bullying boss eaten by rats in 'Willard' in 1971 and as a redneck demon in 'The Devil's Rain' in 1975.
After starting his television career in 1951 when the medium was young, he continued to make regular appearances. From 1962-66 he starred as LCDR Quinton McHale in the TV sitcom "McHale's Navy" as well as in a big screen incarnation, and he received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1963. He continued to successfully alternate television and movie work for the rest of his career. He made several appearances on different episodes of 'Wagon Train', and on 'The Dean Martin Show', 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In' 'The Ford Television Theatre', 'Waterfront', 'Fireside Theatre', 'The O. Henry Playhouse', and many others. He also appeared in several high quality made-for-TV movies including 'Jesus of Nazareth' in 1977, 'Ghost on Flight 401' the following year and a remake of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' in 1979. From 1984-5 he made a return to series television starring opposite Jan Michael Vincent as Dominic Santini in the all-action series 'Airwolf' and he appeared on many occasions on the television game show 'Hollywood Squares'.
He also did voice-over work, notably as Mermaid Man on TV's cartoon 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and in animated films such as 'All Dogs Go to Heaven 2' in 1996 and 'Small Soldiers' in 1998.
Personal
Borgnine was married five times. His first marriage was in 1948 to Rhoda Kemins whom he met whilst sill in the Navy. They had one daughter and divorced in 1959. He was then married to the actress Katy Jurado from 1959 to 1963 and in 1964 he was married to the singer, Ethel Merman for just 32 days. According to Borgnine, she could not handle the fact that he was more famous than her. In 1965 he married Donna Rancourt with whom he had a son and a daughter and on his divorce in 1972 he married his fifth and last wife Tova Traesnaes who runs a successful cosmetics company.In 2004, his original stint in the Navy and his lifelong support for the Navy worldwide, was recognised when he was awarded the honorary rank of Chief Petty Officer of the US Navy.
He was known to be an active member of the Masonic Order, holding the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite of Masonry.
His autobiography, called simply "Ernie" was published in July 2008 and contains recollections and anecdotes of his personal and professional life.
In 2007, Ernest Borgnine became the first Best Actor Oscar winner to be still alive on his 90th birthday, but even as he aged, he still continued to work hard. There were no less than four Ernest Borgnine movies out in 2010, including his playing opposite Bruce Willis in 'Red'.
Ernest Borgnine died of renal failure on July 8, 2012, in Los Angeles. He was 95 years old.
Ernest Borgnine Academy Awards
One Win:Best Actor ... Marty (1955)
No Unsuccessful Nominations:
Ernest Borgnine Filmography
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1950
1951
China Corsair Richer Than the Earth Remember That Face 1952
1954
Johnny Guitar Demetrius and the Gladiators The Bounty Hunter Vera Cruz 1956
Jubal Wedding Breakfast The Best Things in Life Are Free Three Brave Men 1957
1958
The Vikings The Badlanders Torpedo Run 1959
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll The Rabbit Trap 1960
Confessions of a Counterspy Pay or Die 1961
Go Naked in the World Il re di Poggioreale Il giudizio universale Seduction of the South Barabbas 1962
1963
1964
1965
The Flight of the Phoenix 1966
The Oscar 1967
Chuka The Dirty Dozen 1968
The Man Who Makes the Difference The Legend of Lylah Clare Ice Station Zebra The Split 1969
The Wild Bunch The Adventurers Desperate Men
1970
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? 1971
Rain for a Dusty Summer Willard Bunny O'Hare Hannie Caulder 1972
The World of Sport Fishing The Return of the Movie Movie (uncredited) Un uomo dalla pelle dura The Revengers The Poseidon Adventure 1973
Emperor of the North Pole The Neptune Factor Film Portrait 1974
Sunday in the Country 1975
The Devil's Rain Hustle 1976
Shoot 1977
The Greatest The Prince and the Pauper 1978
Convoy 1979 Ravagers The Double McGuffin The Black Hole |
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1980
When Time Ran Out... Poliziotto superpiù 1981
Escape from New York High Risk Deadly Blessing 1982
1983
Young Warriors 1984
Code Name: Wild Geese Cane arrabbiato 1985
1986
1987
Skeleton Coast Qualcuno pagherà? 1988
The Big Turnaround Bersaglio sull'autostrada Any Man's Death Spike of Bensonhurst 1989
Gummibärchen küßt man nicht Laser Mission
1990
Tides of War L'ultima partita 1991
1992
1993
1994
Outlaws: The Legend of O.B. Taggart 1995
Captiva Island 1996
Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 1997
MGM Sing-Alongs: Having Fun Ernest Borgnine on the Bus McHale's Navy Gattaca The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage 1998
Small Soldiers BASEketball 12 Bucks Mel 1999
An All Dogs Christmas Carol The Last Great Ride Abilene
2000
The Lost Treasure of Sawtooth Island The Kiss of Debt Castle Rock Hoover 2001
2002
Whiplash S1m0ne 11'09''01 - September 11 2003
The American Hobo The Long Ride Home 2004
Barn Red Blueberry 2005
That One Summer 3 Below Rail Kings Passion & Poetry: The Ballad of Sam Peckinpah 2006
La cura del gorilla 2007
The Puppeteers McHale's Navy: The Crew Remembers Passion & Poetry: Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project Oliviero Rising 2008
Strange Wilderness Chinaman's Chance Frozen Stupid The Prologue to Houdini Magic's Expert at the Card Table Red and White: Gone with the West 2009
Another Harvest Moon 2010
Enemy Mind The Genesis Code Red Snatched |