Oscar Winner Ernest Borgnine Dies at 95

Ernest Borgnine, the dependable Academy Award-winning actor who made a career out of playing working stiffs and the heavy through a sturdy six decades of work in films, television and Broadway, has died. He was 95.

Borgnine, who won the best actor Oscar for his sensitive portrayal of the simple, love-starved butcher in the 1955 best-picture winner Marty, died Sunday of renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his longtime manager confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. He was surrounded by family.

"It's a very sad day," Borgnine's manager Lynda Bensky tells The Hollywood Reporter. "The industry has lost someone great, the caliber of which we will never see again. A true icon, but more importantly the world has lost a sage and loving man who taught us all how to 'grow young.' His infectious smile and chuckle made the world a happier place."

The Italian-American actor from Connecticut also is widely known for playing the carefree and conniving Quinton McHale in the hit ABC series McHale’s Navy that aired from 1962-66.

Borgnine also made indelible impressions for his performances as Fatso, a brutal stockade sergeant who beats Frank Sinatra to death in From Here to Eternity (1953); as Dutch, a member of The Wild Bunch in the 1969 Western classic from director Sam Peckinpah; as a passenger fighting for his life in the disaster classic The Poseidon Adventure (1972); and as the voice of Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants.

Borgnine became the oldest performer to be nominated for a Golden Globe when he was acknowledged for the 2007 television movie A Grandpa for Christmas. And in 2009, at age 92, he was nominated for an Emmy for his guest performance in the final season of ER.

In all, Borgnine was credited with more than 40 movie roles and more than 200 TV appearances, stretching from such early anthology series as Philco Playhouse and G.E. Theatre to a role as Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi in the 1973 telefilm Legend in Granite to his stint as a good-natured, pasta-loving doorman on the NBC 1995-97 sitcom The Single Guy. He also starred opposite Jan-Michael Vincent in 1984-86's Airwolf, a CBS series created by Don Bellisario of NCIS fame.

Borgnine was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2010.

"For six decades, Ernie entertained us with an impressive body of work and, at the age of 95, he continued to have a remarkably busy life and career," SAG-AFTRA co-president Ken Howard said. "We will genuinely miss his smile and generous, joyous spirit. Our deepest sympathies go out to Tova and the Borgnine family."

Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnine on Jan. 24, 1917, in Hamden, Conn., to Italian-immigrant parents. When he was 2, his mother took him to live in Milan, but they returned to the U.S., and he attended elementary and high school in New Haven, Conn.

Following his high school graduation, Borgnine enlisted in the Navy and served as an apprentice seaman. He served for 10 years, rising to the rank of chief petty officer/gunner’s mate. Following his service, he used the G.I. Bill to enroll in the Randall School of Dramatic Art in Hartford.

His first professional acting experience came at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va., where he painted scenery, drove a truck and appeared in a variety of roles. He made his way to New York, where he won his first role on Broadway in the 1940s in Harvey, playing an hospital attendant. He soon made another Broadway appearance as a gangster in Mrs. McThing, which starred Helen Hayes.

Borgnine was spotted by a Hollywood talent scout from Columbia Pictures, and he was soon cast in his first film, The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951).

Marty began as a teleplay by Paddy Chayefsky that aired in May 1953 on The Goodyear Television Playhouse with Rod Steiger in the title role as the butcher living with his mother and Nancy Marchand playing Clara, another lonely soul who Marty meets at a dance.

The teleplay was adapted into a full-length feature film at United Artists in 1955, with Borgnine as the butcher and Betsy Blair as Clara. In addition to the Oscars for best film and Borgnine, the film earned Academy Awards for director Delbert Mann and Chayefsky and earned the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
 

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