Ernest Borgnine, star of ‘Marty,’ dies at 95

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Ernest Borgnine, the beefy screen star known for blustery, often villainous roles, but who won the best-actor Oscar for playing against type as a lovesick butcher in “Marty” in 1955, died Sunday. He was 95.

His longtime spokesman, Harry Flynn, told The Associated Press that Borgnine died of renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with his wife and children at his side.

Borgnine endeared himself to a generation of baby boomers with the 1960s TV comedy “McHale’s Navy,” which also starred Youngstown native Joe Flynn as Capt. Binghamton. Borgnine first attracted notice in the early 1950s in villain roles, notably as the vicious Fatso Judson, who beat Frank Sinatra to death in “From Here to Eternity.”

Then came “Marty,” a low-budget film based on a Paddy Chayefsky television play that starred Rod Steiger. Borgnine played a 34-year-old who fears he is so unattractive he will never find romance. Then, at a dance, he meets a girl with the same fear.

Borgnine won the Oscar and awards from the Cannes Film Festival, New York Critics and National Board of Review.

He had four failed marriages, including one in 1964 to singer Ethel Merman that lasted less than six weeks.

But Borgnine’s fifth marriage, in 1973 to Norwegian-born Tova Traesnaes, endured.

He successfully made the transition to TV comedy with “McHale’s Navy” from 1962-66. More recently, Borgnine had a recurring role as the apartment doorman-cum-chef in the NBC sitcom “The Single Guy.” He had a small role in the 1997 movie version of “McHale’s Navy.” And he was the voice of Mermaid Man on “SpongeBob SquarePants” and Carface on “All Dogs Go to Heaven 2.”

Ermes Efron Borgnino was born in Hamden, Conn., on Jan. 24, 1917, the son of Italian immigrant parents.