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, who endeared himself
to a generation of Baby Boomers with the 1960s TV comedy "McHale's
Navy," 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.
"Sooner or later, there comes a
point in a man's life when he's gotta face some facts," Marty movingly
tells his mother at one point in the film. "And one fact I gotta face is
that, whatever it is that women like, I ain't got it. I chased after
enough girls in my life. I-I went to enough dances. I got hurt enough. I
don't wanna get hurt no more."
The realism of Chayefsky's prose
and Delbert Mann's sensitive direction astonished audiences accustomed
to happy Hollywood formulas. Borgnine won the Oscar and awards from the
Cannes Film Festival, New York Critics and National Board of Review.
"The Oscar made me a star, and
I'm grateful," Borgnine told an interviewer in 1966. "But I feel had I
not won the Oscar I wouldn't have gotten into the messes I did in my
personal life."
Those messes included 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 and brought with it an
interesting business partnership. She manufactured and sold her own
beauty products under the name of Tova and used her husband's
rejuvenated face in her ads.
During a 2007 interview with The
Associated Press, Borgnine expressed delight that their union had
reached 34 years. "That's longer than the total of my four other
marriages," he commented, laughing heartily.
Although still not a marquee star until after "Marty," the roles of
heavies started coming regularly after "From Here to Eternity." Among
the films: "Bad Day at Black Rock," ''Johnny Guitar," ''Demetrius and
the Gladiators," ''Vera Cruz."
Then he successfully made the transition to TV comedy.
From 1962 to 1966, Borgnine a
Navy vet himself starred in "McHale's Navy" as the commander of a World
War II PT boat with a crew of misfits and malcontents. Obviously
patterned after Phil Silvers' popular Sgt. Bilko, McHale was a con
artist forever tricking his superior, Capt. Binghamton, played by the
late Joe Flynn.
The cast took the show to the big screen in 1964 with a "McHale's Navy" movie.
Borgnine's later films included
"Ice Station Zebra," ''The Adventurers," ''Willard," ''The Poseidon
Adventure," ''The Greatest" (as Muhammad Ali's manager), "Convoy,"
''Ravagers," ''Escape from New York," ''Moving Target" and "Mistress."
More recently, Borgnine had a
recurring role as the apartment house doorman-cum-chef in the NBC sitcom
"The Single Guy." He had a small role in the unsuccessful 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."
On Jan. 24, 2007, Borgnine
celebrated his 90th birthday with a party for friends and family at a
West Hollywood bistro. He seemed little changed from his years as a
lusty villain or sympathetic hero on the screen. His only concession to
age had come at 88 when he gave up driving the bus he would take around
the country, stopping to talk with local folks along the way.
During an interview at the time,
Borgnine complained that he wanted to continue acting but most studio
executives kept asking, "Is he still alive?"
"I just want to do more work,"
he said. "Every time I step in front of a camera I feel young again. I
really do. It keeps your mind active and it keeps you going."
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