Ernest Borgnine (born January 24, 1917)[1][2] is an American character actor of stage and screen. On television, he is also better known for playing the title character, as Navy Officer, LCDR. Quinton McHale, in McHale's Navy, in the 1960s. He also played a helicopter pilot side-kick, Dominic Santini, in Airwolf, opposite Jan-Michael Vincent, in the mid-1980s.
Early life
Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino in Hamden, Connecticut, the son of Anna (née Boselli), an Italian countess[citation needed] who immigrated to the US from Carpi, Italy, and Charles B. Borgnino, who immigrated to the US from Ottiglio, Italy.[3]
His parents separated when he was two years old, and he and his mother went to live in Italy. By 1923, his parents had reconciled, and the family name was changed from Borgnino to Borgnine. The family had settled in North Haven, Connecticut, where he attended public schools. His mother also had the passion to develop her own dance. Anna gave her son a lot of moral support and he stood closely by her at all times. Second only to his father, Ernest had a hot temper, but his wit and charm helped him win over his staunchest detractors.
Naval career
Borgnine joined the United States Navy in 1935 after high school. He was discharged in 1941, but he re-enlisted when the United States entered World War II and served until 1945 (a total of ten years), reaching the rank of Gunner's Mate 1st Class. His military decorations included the American Campaign Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, and the World War II Victory Medal.
In 2004, Borgnine received the honorary rank of Chief Petty Officer from the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Terry D. Scott—the US Navy's highest ranking enlisted sailor at the time—for Borgnine's support of the Navy and Navy families worldwide.
Film career
After the war was over he returned to his parents' doorsteps, with no job and no direction. When he wasn't willing to settle for a dead end job at one of the factories, his mother would encourage him to pursue a more glamorous profession, and suggested that his personality would be suited for the stage. He surprised his mother by taking the suggestion to heart, although his father was far from being enthusiastic. Following graduation, he auditioned and was accepted to the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, where audiences usually barter their vegetables. In 1947, he landed his first stage role in State of the Union. Although it was a short role, he won over the stage. His next role was as the Gentleman Caller in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. In 1949, he debuted on Broadway in the role of a nurse in the play Harvey. More roles on stage led him to being a decades-long character actor.
In 1951, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he received his big break in From Here to Eternity (1953), playing the cruel Sergeant "Fatso" Judson, in charge of the stockade, who taunts fellow soldier Angelo Maggio (played by Frank Sinatra).
Borgnine built a reputation as a dependable character actor and appeared in early film roles as villains, including Johnny Guitar, Vera Cruz and Bad Day at Black Rock. But in 1955, the actor starred as a warmhearted butcher in the film version of the television play Marty, which gained him an Academy Award for Best Actor (over From Here to Eternity co-star Frank Sinatra and former Best Actors Spencer Tracy and James Cagney).
Because of Borgnine's longevity, Marty currently stands as the oldest film with a Best Actor performance from someone still alive. With the passing of Charlton Heston on April 5, 2008, Borgnine is the only living actor who has won Best Actor for performances given prior to 1960 (by comparison, there are five living pre-1960 Best Actress recipients).
Borgnine's film career continued successfully through the 1960s and 1970s, with later film roles including The Vikings, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch, The Poseidon Adventure and The Black Hole.
Character actor
As a young adult, Borgnine made his TV debut as a character actor in Captain Video and His Video Rangers, beginning in 1951. These 2 episodes, led to other roles that Borgnine would guest-star for the next half of a decade are: Goodyear Television Playhouse, Short Short Dramas, The Ford Television Theatre, Waterfront, The Lone Wolf, Fireside Theatre, The O. Henry Playhouse, Frontier Justice, Laramie, The Blue Angels, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Run for Your Life, Little House on the Prairie's Pt. 2 episode - "The Lord is My Shepherd", The Love Boat, Magnum, P.I., Highway To Heaven with old friend Michael Landon, Murder, She Wrote, Walker, Texas Ranger, Touched By An Angel, the final episodes of ER, among many others.
Television roles
McHale's Navy
In 1962, Borgnine joined the ranks of other sitcom stars such as John Forsythe, Andy Griffith, Danny Thomas, Alan Young, Fred MacMurray, and newcomer Buddy Ebsen. The same year, he signed a contract with Universal Studios for the lead role as the gruff but lovable skipper Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale in what began as a serious one-hour 1962 episode called Seven Against the Sea for Alcoa Premiere. Just like the McHale character, Borgnine was a longtime navy man in real-life. This World War II sitcom also starred two hitherto-unfamiliar comedians/actors, the late Joe Flynn as Capt. Wallace B. Binghamton and Tim Conway as Ensign Charles Parker. Both of them got along very well with Borgnine, especially Conway, who "got hugged by Ernie" off the set. The insubordinate crew of PT-73 helped the show became an overnight success during its first season, although it did not land in the Top 30 until 1963, when it tied with Hazel in the ratings. Borgnine thrived on the adulation from fans for their favorite Navy man. He received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1963. At the end of the fourth season in 1966 low ratings and repetitive story lines brought McHale's Navy to an end. Borgnine was very displeased about the show’s cancelation and was concerned about what television role he would then play. He starred in the 1964 film version of the series and appeared in a cameo performance in the 1997 remake.
Airwolf
Borgnine returned to re-sign a contract with Universal Studios in 1983, for a co-starring role opposite Jan-Michael Vincent, in Airwolf. After he was approached by producer Donald P. Bellisario, who had been impressed by Borgnine's guest role as a wrestler in a 1982 episode of Magnum, p.i., he immediately agreed. He played Dominic Santini, a helicopter pilot, in the program which became an immediate hit. Borgnine's strong performances belied his exhaustion due to the grueling production schedule, and the challenges of working with his younger, troubled series' lead. The show was cancelled by CBS in 1986.
The Single Guy
He then auditioned, for the third time, for a co-starring role opposite Jonathan Silverman in The Single Guy, as doorman, Manny Cordoba, which lasted 2 seasons. According to Silverman, Borgnine would come to work with more energy and passion than every other star combined. He was the first person to work each and every day on the set, and the last one to leave.
Awards and honors
He was the first center square in the original version of the television game show Hollywood Squares, with host Peter Marshall.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Ernest Borgnine has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6324 Hollywood Blvd. In 1996, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Other activities
Also in 1996, Borgnine toured the US in a bus to meet his fans and see the country. The trip was the subject of a 1997 documentary, Ernest Borgnine on the Bus. He also served one year as the Chairman of the National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans, visiting patients in Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.
Ernest Borgnine is a Freemason and a 33rd Scottish Rite Mason in the Southern Masonic Jurisdiction.
Hobbies
Borgnine's hobbies include swimming, golfing, singing, traveling, dancing, partying, and spending time with family.[citation needed] On Airwolf, he did a lot of flying.
His most recent work
Since 1999, Borgnine has provided his voice talent to the comedy cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants as the elderly superhero Mermaid Man (where he is once again paired up with his McHale's Navy co-star, Tim Conway, who voices Mermaid Man's sidekick Barnacle Boy). He has expressed affection for this role, in no small part for its popularity among children. Borgnine also appeared on The Simpsons episode Boy-Scoutz N the Hood as himself in addition to a number of television commercials. In 2000, he was the executive producer of Hoover, in which he is the only credited actor.
In 2007, 90-year-old Borgnine starred in the Hallmark Original Movie A Grandpa for Christmas. He starred as a man who discovers, when his estranged daughter is in a car accident, that he has a granddaughter he never knew about. She is taken into his care, and they soon become great friends. For his performance in A Grandpa For Christmas, Borgnine received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television. At 90, he was the oldest Golden Globe nominee ever.
On April 2, 2009, Borgnine starred in the last episode of TV's ER. His role was that of a husband whose long marriage ended with his wife's death in the hospital. In his final scene, Borgnine's character is lying in the hospital bed next to his just-deceased wife.
Autobiography
Borgnine's autobiography Ernie was published by Citadel Press in July 2008. Ernie is a loose, conversational recollection of highlights from his acting career and notable events from his personal life.
In the wake of the book's publication, he began a small promotional tour, visiting independent bookstores in the Los Angeles area to promote the book's release and meet some of his fans.[4]
Personal life
Borgnine has married five times.
- Rhoda Kemins (1949–1958), whom he met while serving in the Navy;[5] They had one daughter, Gina (born August 18, 1952).
- The actress Katy Jurado (1959–1963)
- The singer Ethel Merman (1964), which lasted barely over a month. (divorce final May 25, 1965)
- Donna Rancourt (1965–1972), with whom he had a son, Christopher (born August 9, 1969) and two daughters, Sharon (born August 5, 1965) and Diana (born December 29, 1970).
- Tova Traesnaes (February 24, 1973 to date)
He has one sister, Evelyn Velardi (b. 1926).
His mother, Anna Borgnine, died in 1949, after a long battle against tuberculosis, just days before his first wedding.
His ex-wife, Katy Jurado, died 1 day after Independence Day 2002, of a heart attack. Borgnine had once referred to his second ex-wife, "Beautiful, but a tiger."
On 24 January 2007, Borgnine had celebrated his 90th Birthday, at a local bistro in West Hollywood, California. Among the guests of honor were: his decades-long friend Tim Conway, his wife Tova Borgnine, Dennis Farina, Army Archerd, Andy Granatelli, Bo Hopkins, Burt Young, Steven Bauer, his son Cris Borgnine, grandson Anthony Borgnine, Connie Stevens, David Gerber, Debbie Reynolds, Joe Mantegna, Norm Crosby, among many others.
On 24 February 2008, Borgnine celebrated the 35th Anniversary of his marriage to cosmetics maker, Tova Traenaes.
He holds the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite of Masonry and has long been active in the Craft and is also a member of the Shriners. Borgnine is also a recipient of the Grand Cross, which is the highest honor for service to the Scottish Rite. Borgnine is also a member of the Lambda chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
A street was named in Borgnine’s honor in his hometown of Hamden, Connecticut, where he still enjoys a large and vocal following. There is also a Mexican-themed restaurant in New York City with a shrine dedicated to Borgnine.[6]
For 30 years (1972–2002), Borgnine marched in Milwaukee's annual Great Circus Parade as the "Grand Clown", and has reportedly agreed to do so again on July 12, 2009, as the parade is revived.[7]
On August 14, 2008, Borgnine claimed on Fox News Channel that one of his secrets of long life was to "masturbate a lot".[8][9]
Awards and nominations
Filmography
Film
Television
Quotes
- Ernest: "Spencer Tracy was the first actor I've seen who could just look down into the dirt and command a scene. He played a set-up with Robert Ryan that way. He's looking down at the road and then he looks at Ryan at just the precise, right minute. I tell you, Rob could've stood on his head and zipped open his fly and the scene would've still been Mr Tracy's."
- Ernest: "The trick is not to become somebody else. You become somebody else when you're in front of a camera or when you're on stage. There are some people who carry it all the time. That, to me, is not acting. What you've gotta do is find out what the writer wrote about and put it into your mind. This is acting. Not going out and researching what the writer has already written. This is crazy!"
- Ernest: "Everything I do has a moral to it. Yes, I've been in films that have had shootings. I made The Wild Bunch (1969), which was the beginning of the splattering of blood and everything else. But there was a moral behind it. The moral was that, by golly, bad guys got it. That was it. Yeah."
- Ernest: "Ever since they opened the floodgates with Clark Gable saying, 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn,' somebody's ears pricked up and said, 'Oh boy, here we go!'. Writers used to make such wonderful pictures without all that swearing, all that cursing. And now it seems that you can't say three words without cursing. And I don't think that's right."
- A 91 year old Ernest gives the secret to looking so young during an interview on Fox News, "I don't dare tell you...[whispers] I masturbate a lot."
- Ernest on drugs: "No, I've never done anything. At least, not to my knowledge. I once took a bunch of goofballs by accident. They looked like candy. They were in a little bowl at a party. I grabbed a hand full and went to town. That was some New Years Eve. I didn't have a coherent thought till February."
- Ernest on his $5,000 salary for playing the eponymous lead in Marty (1955), which won him a Best Actor Oscar: "...I would have done it for nothing."
- Ernest on Womens Rights: "They tried it the wrong way. You can't expect anyone to take you seriously if you burn your undies and tell me I'm a pig. That's why it failed. Too many ugly broads telling me that they don't want to sleep with me. Who wanted you anyway?"
References
- ^ "Ernest Borgnine." International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 3: Actors and Actresses, 4th ed. St. James Press, 2000. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006: "Born: Ermes Effron Borgnino in Hamden, Connecticut, January 24, 1917 (some sources say 1915 or 1918)."
- ^ Clooney, Nick (2003). The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections on the Screen. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7434-1044-0. , p. 114
- ^ Ernest Borgnine Biography (1917-)
- ^ "The Importance of Being Ernie". http://newtextureblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/ernest-borgnine-in-hollywood.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-05.
- ^ M. A. Schmidt (April 10, 1955). "Ernest Borgnine: Fiendish 'Fatso' to Meek 'Marty'". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/movies/bestpictures/marty-ar.html. Retrieved on 2006-11-14.
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/14/nyregion/14metjournal.html
- ^ http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/41376997.html
- ^ Jordan, Katy (August 15, 2008). "Ernest Borgnine, 91, reveals his little secret". Boston Herald. http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/general/view/2008_08_15_Ernest_Borgnine__91__reveals_his_little_secret/srvc=home&position=6. Retrieved on 2008-08-15.
- ^ "Anchors Floored After Mic Picks Up Ernest Borgnine’s Shock Secret to Long Life". Breitbart.tv. August 14, 2008. http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=152013.
External links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Borgnine, Ernest |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Borgnino, Ermes Effron |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
January 24, 1917 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Hamden, Connecticut, USA |
| DATE OF DEATH |
|
| PLACE OF DEATH |
|
