This one really hurts. Ernest Borgnine, the incredible character actor/actor/force of nature, passed away today at 95.
From early roles in 50s Westerns such as The Stranger Wore A Gun (1953), Vera Cruz (1954) and Johnny Guitar (1954) to later things like Marty (1955), The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Wild Bunch (1969) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Borgnine was always good (even if the rest of the film wasn’t).
Putting that list together, I realized how many great things I missed — From Here To Eternity (1953), Bad Day At Black Rock (1955), Emperor Of The North (1974) and, of course, Jubal (1958, with Glenn Ford, above). My daughter loves him in McHale’s Navy and as Mermaid Man on Spongebob Squarepants. What a body of work.
He won an Oscar for Marty, but I’d hold up Dutch in The Wild Bunch as the finest of his fine performances. In a film filled with terrific acting, he really stands out.
Lucky for us, he covers many of these pictures in his autobiography Ernie, which I liked a lot. I really recommend it, especially since I’m not doing him any justice here tonight. One more photo: with Randolph Scott in The Bounty Hunter (1954).
Beautiful tribute, Toby. We saw him in Portland a few months ago for a TCM screening of Marty. The whole time I was just sitting there thinking, “He’s 95?? No. Way.” If I can reach that age with even half of his warmth, wit and joy of living, I’ll be a lucky woman. He was a force of nature indeed. Rest well Ernie, and thank you.
He was impressive as the viking king in The Vikings. I still admire him for this to this day .
Left that one off the list! And Torpedo Run. And Run For Cover. And The Badlanders…
So much good stuff.
I can only say that I rate as one of the greatest screen actors of all time–so good that people have not given him due, and never will, because every thing he did seemed effortless–that’s how good he was. He never hit a sour note–I never saw him reach or sweat or struggle–as an actor he had perfect pitch. I can think of a million great performances, but Borgnine in The Wild Bunch will always be near the top for me.
The Wild Bunch is one of the best-acted movies ever made. And Dutch gives it its soul in a lot of ways.
You’re right, he’s so good and so consistent we’ll never ever understand how good he is. Kinda like Doc Watson who we also just lost.
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Nice words from everyone so far. He was a wonderful actor–always understood movie acting and that being believable was the most important thing. Toby has it right that he was always good even if the film wasn’t. Happily, he was in his share of classics along the way–a lot of the titles Toby mentioned above are movies I’ve seen over and over through the years.
I don’t know if it’s so much that he was better than usual, but it was an especially good role, good rapport with director Peckinpah (according to EB himself), and I guess I’m a third person here that would likely choose Dutch in THE WILD BUNCH as my personal favorite.
Coincidentally, Colin at RIDIN’ THE HIGH COUNTRY wrote last week on THE BOUNTY HUNTER, which I only saw once years ago and don’t remember well now but he perked my interest to see it again and it happens to be coming on the Western Channel so I just set up to record, but had forgotten Borgnine was in this one.
For such a nice, humble man he made a terrific bad guy before becoming a “star” in his own right. Great in pretty much everything I’ve ever seen him in, including his role in segment of “September 11″ directed by Sean Penn. He could do it all.
You’re so right – this one hurts.
Bad Guy – Good Guy – Tough Guy – Sentimental Guy – Funny Guy – WHAT A GUY !