He won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a lovelorn butcher in 1955's "Marty," but to me he's Airwolf's Dominic Santini. [CNN]

  • penguinchris

    Marty is a great film though. I guarantee TCM will play it soon (along with other films with Borgnine including, probably, many of those I list below) and though it’s a little dated it’s still very touching and I highly recommend it.

    He was in loads of movies and TV shows, many that are great, and a lot that are awful. He’s excellent in the films he starred in (like Marty and The Rabbit Trap among others) but he was really at his best in lively supporting character roles. To give a taste, some of his best supporting roles are in films like From Here to Eternity, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra, The Wild Bunch, The Poseiden Adventure, and Escape from New York. That’s a killer list of classic films and the classic era of big budget action/adventure films would not have been the same without him.

    And while not as iconic as The Andy Griffith show, McHale’s Navy is a classic TV show and Borgnine totally owned that role.

  • kiptw

    The definitive Mermaid Man!
    (Has Barnacle Boy been reached for comment?)

  • http://twitter.com/zillustration pauliez

    http://www.zillustration.com/_images/blogger/zdepski_Ernest_Borgnine.jpg
    EB: Fighting Evil Since 1917
    Mermaid Man in the PT-73

  • http://www.aarongilliland.com/ Aaron Gilliland

    I’m sure you kids know him best as Sgt. Fatso Judson in “From Here to Eternity”.

  • Antinous / Moderator

    History will mostly remember him for surviving Ethel Merman.

  • Jonathan Badger

    No love for Borgnine’s Harry Booth, crewmember aboard the starship Palomino in 1979′s The Black Hole? Okay, the movie has pretty much been forgotten, but Disney was so sure it was going to be their ticket to all that SF money that Fox had with Star Wars — there were Black Hole action figures, comic book tie ins, etc.

    • EH

      Black Hole trivia: It’s the first Disney movie where a human dies.

  • planettom

    To me he’s Shack from the strange 1973 Robert Aldrich film EMPEROR OF THE NORTH (POLE).

    He was at Dragon Con last year, I saw him give a Q&A about his career.

    Actually, here’s someone’s video of me asking Ernest Borgnine a question:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QYZ-zUN7o0

  • RJ

    Borgnine brought life to a lot of roles, but to me, he’ll always be Lt. Commander Quinton McHale.

  • Will Bueche

    [DeNiro] Gattaca! Gattaca! [/DeNiro]

  • chris revis
    • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

       That’s just plain weird….

    • Mister44

      Clicking on the link – not on the ‘coon video – I remember seeing that now. Hilarious.

  • Mister44

    He was in  a bunch of good stuff. I totally remember watching Airwolf when I was little. Another person to be missed.

  • http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers

    I made a little thing on b3ta in “honour” of the Borg.

    http://www.b3ta.com/board/10803615