Ernest Borgnine (/ˈbɔːrɡnaɪn/BORG-nyne; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin.[2] A popular performer, he also appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows and as a panelist on several game shows.
Borgnine earned his third Primetime Emmy Award nomination at age 92 for his work on the 2009 series finale of ER. He was also known as the original voice of Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants from 1999 until his death in 2012.
Early life and education
Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino (Italian:[borˈɲiːno]) on January 24, 1917, in Hamden, Connecticut,[3][4] the son of Italian immigrants. His mother, Anna (née Boselli) hailed from Carpi, near Modena, while his father Camillo Borgnino was a native of Ottiglio near Alessandria.[5] Borgnine's parents separated when he was two years old, and he then lived with his mother in Italy for about four and a half years. By 1923, his parents had reconciled, the family name was changed from Borgnino to Borgnine, and his father changed his first name to Charles. Borgnine had a younger sister, Evelyn Borgnine Velardi (1925–2013).[6] The family settled in New Haven, Connecticut, where Borgnine graduated from James Hillhouse High School. He took to sports while growing up, but showed no interest in acting.[7]
Military service
Borgnine wearing a chief petty officer's cap in October 2004
In 1997, Borgnine received the United States Navy Memorial, Lone Sailor Award.[12] On December 7, 2000, Borgnine was named the Veterans Foundation's Veteran of the Year.
Borgnine returned to his parents' house in Connecticut after his Navy discharge without a job to go back to and no direction. In a British Film Institute interview about his life and career, he said:
After World War II, we wanted no more part in war. I didn't even want to be a Boy Scout. I went home and said that I was through with the Navy and so now, what do we do? So I went home to mother, and after a few weeks of patting me on the back and "You did good," and everything else, one day she said, "Well?" like mothers do. Which meant, "All right, you gonna get a job or what?"[15]
He took a local factory job, but was unwilling to settle down to that kind of work. His mother encouraged him to pursue a more glamorous profession, and suggested to him that his personality would be well suited for the stage. He surprised his mother by taking the suggestion to heart, although his father was far from enthusiastic. In 2011, Borgnine remembered,
She said, "You always like getting in front of people and making a fool of yourself, why don't you give it a try?" I was sitting at the kitchen table and I saw this light. No kidding. It sounds crazy. And 10 years later, I had Grace Kelly handing me an Academy Award.
He studied acting at the Randall School of Drama in Hartford, then moved to Virginia, where he became a member of the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia.[16] It had been named for the director's allowing audiences to barter produce for admission during the cash-lean years of the Great Depression. In 1947, Borgnine landed his first stage role in State of the Union. Although it was a short role, he won over the audience. His next role was as the Gentleman Caller in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.[17]
Borgnine and Betsy Blair in a trailer for Marty, 1955Grace Kelly presents the Oscar for Best Actor to Borgnine, for his performance in Marty, 1956
Borgnine moved to Los Angeles, California, where he eventually received his big break in Columbia film directed by Fred Zinnemann, the romantic war drama From Here to Eternity (1953), playing the sadistic Sergeant "Fatso" Judson, who beats a stockade prisoner in his charge, Angelo Maggio (played by Frank Sinatra). The film received critical acclaim including the Academy Award for Best Picture. The following year he acted in four films, three of them Western dramas, Johnny Guitar starring Joan Crawford, The Bounty Hunter with Randolph Scott, Vera Cruz starring Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper, he also starred in the Biblical drama Demetrius and the Gladiators. Borgnine built a reputation as a dependable character actor, and played villains in early films, including movies such as Johnny Guitar and Vera Cruz.
In 1962, Borgnine signed a contract with Universal Studios for the lead role as the gruff but lovable skipper, Quinton McHale, in what began as a serious one-hour 1962 episode called "Seven Against the Sea" for Alcoa Premiere, and later reworked to a comedy called McHale's Navy, a World War II sitcom, which also co-starred unfamiliar comedians Joe Flynn as Capt. Wally Binghamton and Tim Conway as Ens. Charles Parker. The insubordinate crew of PT-73 helped the show become an overnight success during its first season, landing in the top 30 in 1963.
He thrived on the adulation from fans for their favorite navy man, and in 1963 received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. At the end of the fourth season, in 1966, low ratings and repetitive storylines brought McHale's Navy to an end. At the time McHale's Navy began production, Borgnine was married to actress Katy Jurado. Her death in 2002 drew Borgnine and Conway much closer; about his acting mentor's long career, Conway said: "There were no limits to Ernie. When you look at his career—Fatso Judson to Marty, that's about as varied as you get in characters and he handled both of them with equal delicacy and got the most out of those characters."[19]
Borgnine's film career flourished for the next three decades, including roles in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967) with Lee Marvin, Ice Station Zebra (1968), Willard (1971) The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Emperor of the North (1973), Convoy (1978), The Black Hole (1979), Super Fuzz (1980) and Escape from New York (1981). One of his most famous roles was that of Dutch in the Western classic The Wild Bunch (1969) from director Sam Peckinpah. Of his role in The Wild Bunch, Borgnine later said, "I did [think it was a moral film]. Because to me, every picture should have some kind of a moral to it. I feel that when we used to watch old pictures, as we still do I'm sure, the bad guys always got it in the end and the good guys always won out. Today, it's a little different. Today, it seems that the bad guys are getting the good end of it. There was always a moral in our story".[15]
Borgnine returned to Universal Studios in 1983, for a co-starring role opposite Jan-Michael Vincent, on 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 to join the series. He played Dominic Santini, a helicopter pilot, 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, series lead. The show was canceled by CBS in 1986.
in 1995 he appeared with Jonathan Silverman in The Single Guy as doorman Manny Cordoba, which lasted two seasons. According to Silverman, Borgnine came to work with more energy and passion than all other stars combined. He was the first person to arrive on the set every day and the last to leave.
In 1996, Borgnine starred in the televised fantasy/thriller film Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (partially adapted from the 1984 horror film The Devil's Gift). As narrator and storyteller, Borgnine recounts a string of related supernatural tales, his modern-day fables notably centering on an enchanted and malicious cymbal-banging monkey toy stolen from the wizard Merlin. The film was later featured in the parodical television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, and has since gained a prominent cult following.[22] Also in 1996, Borgnine toured the United States on 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 many Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.
Borgnine at the Creative Arts Emmys, in 2009
In 1997, Borgnine appeared in the big-screen adaptation comedy film McHale's Navy, where he played Rear Admiral Quinton McHale, who was also the father of Tom Arnold's character, Quinton McHale Jr. In 1998, Borgnine appeared in the Trey Parker and Matt Stone comedy BASEketball as entrepreneur Ted Denslow. Starting in 1999, Borgnine provided his voice talent to the animated sitcomSpongeBob SquarePants as the elderly superhero Mermaid Man (where he was paired up with McHale's Navy co-star Tim Conway as the voice of Mermaid Man's sidekick Barnacle Boy). He expressed affection for this role, in no small part for its popularity among children. After his death, Nickelodeon reaired all of the episodes in which Mermaid Man appeared, in memoriam. Borgnine also appeared as himself in The Simpsons episode "Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood", in addition to a number of television commercials. In 2000, he was the executive producer of Hoover, in which he was the only credited actor.
In 2007, Borgnine starred in the Hallmark original film A Grandpa for Christmas. He played a man who, after his estranged daughter ends up in the hospital because of a car accident, discovers that he has a granddaughter he never knew about. She is taken into his care, and they soon become great friends. Borgnine received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture made for Television for his performance. At 90, he was the oldest Golden Globe nominee ever. In 2010 he costarred in The Wishing Well. 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. On April 2, 2009, he appeared in several episodes of the final season of the long-running medical series ER. His role was that of a husband dealing with the decline of his wife, who would die in the final episode of the series. In his final scene, his character is in a hospital bed lying beside his just-deceased wife. His performance garnered an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, his third nomination and his first in 29 years (since being nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special in 1980 for All Quiet on the Western Front).
Borgnine married five times. His first marriage, from 1949 to 1958, was to Rhoda Kemins, whom he met while serving in the Navy.[23] They had one daughter, Nancee (born May 28, 1952). He was then married to actress Katy Jurado from 1959 to 1963. Borgnine's rancorous marriage to actress and singer Ethel Merman in 1964 lasted only 42 days. Merman's description of the marriage in her autobiography was a solitary blank page. Borgnine's friend Tim Conway later said: "Ernie is volatile. I mean, there's no question about that, and Ethel was a very strong lady. So you put two bombs in a room, something is going to explode, and I guess it probably did."[24]
From 1965 to 1972, Borgnine was married to Donna Rancourt, with whom he had a son, Cristopher (born August 9, 1969), and two daughters, Sharon (born August 5, 1965) and Diana (born December 29, 1970). His fifth and final marriage was to Tova Traesnaes; they remained married from February 24, 1973 until his death.
In 2000, Borgnine received his 50-year pin as a Freemason at Abingdon Lodge No. 48 in Abingdon, Virginia. He joined the Scottish Rite Valley of Los Angeles in 1964, received the Knights Commander of the Court of Honor (KCCH) in 1979, was crowned a 33° Inspector General Honorary in 1983 and received the Grand Cross of the Court of Honour in 1991.[25]
In 2000, Borgnine received his 50-year pin as a Freemason in Abingdon Lodge No. 48, Abingdon, Virginia. He joined the Scottish Rite Valley of Los Angeles (in the Southern Jurisdiction of the U.S.A) in 1964, received the KCCH in 1979, was crowned a 33° Inspector General Honorary in 1983, and received the Grand Cross of the Court of Honour in 1991.[39] He was also a member of the Loyal Order of Moose at that organization's Lodge in Junction City, Oregon. He volunteered to be Stories of Service National spokesman, urging his fellow World War II vets to come forward and share their stories.
In 2007, Borgnine was presented with California's highest civilian honor, the Commendation Medal.[40][41]
^"Ernest Borgnine". International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers 4th Ed. Vol. 3: Actors and Actresses. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale. 2006: "Born: Ermes Effron Borgnino in Hamden, Connecticut, January 24, 1917 (some sources say 1915 or 1918).": St. James Press. 2000.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^Fantle, David; Johnson, Tom (2004). Reel to Real: 25 Years of Celebrity Interviews from Vaudeville to Movies to TV. Badger Books. pp. 106–113. ISBN978-1932542042.
^Pat Grandjean (October 2010). "Q & A: Ernest Borgnine". Connecticut magazine. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
^ ab"Ernest Borgnine (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved July 15, 2021. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
"Ernest Borgnine". Biographies in Navy History. Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy. March 8, 2008. Archived from the original on October 3, 2008. Retrieved March 23, 2008.
Wise, James. Stars in Blue: Movie Actors in America's Sea Services. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997. ISBN1557509379. OCLC36824724.
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