Ernest Borgnine (born Ermes Effron Borgnino) January 1917-8 July 2012 was an American actor
of television and film. His career spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional
lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film
Marty. On television, he played Quinton McHale in the 1962–66 series McHale's Navy and
co-starred in the mid-1980s action series Airwolf, in addition to a wide variety of other
roles. Borgnine is also known for his role as Mermaid Man in the animated television series
SpongeBob SquarePants. < maybe you remembered this one  Borgnine earned an
Emmy Award nomination at age 92 for his work on the series ER.
Naval career
Borgnine joined the United States Navy in 1935, after graduation from James Hillhouse High
School in New Haven, Connecticut. He was discharged in 1941, but 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. He served aboard the destroyer USS Lamberton (DD-119). His
military decorations included the Navy Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal
with Fleet Clasp, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War
II Victory Medal.
In a British Film Institute interview about his life and career, Borgnine said of the war:
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 on the back and, 'You did good,' and
everything else, one day she said, 'Well?' like mothers do. Which meant, 'Alright, you gonna
get a job or what?'
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 naval families worldwide.
Just A Few of his many films:
In 1951, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he eventually 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 movies like Johnny Guitar, Vera Cruz and Bad Day at Black Rock. But in 1955, the
actor starred as a warm-hearted butcher in Marty, the film version of the television play of
the same name, which gained him an Academy Award for Best Actor over Frank Sinatra and
former Best Actors Spencer Tracy and James Cagney.
Borgnine's film career continued successfully through the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s,
including The Vikings, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra, The
Poseidon Adventure, The Black Hole and Escape from New York. One of his most famous roles
became that of Dutch, a member of The Wild Bunch in the 1969 Western classic from director
Sam Peckinpah.
Of his role in 'The Wild Bunch', he 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.
Bon Voyage Chief  |  |
