Let Me Tell You Something About Ernie

Posted by Greg Ferrara on July 11, 2012

Ernest Borgnine died three days ago, July 8, 2012, at the age of 95. He was only seven years younger than Luise Rainer (still going at 102), one year younger than Olivia de Havilland (still going at 96) and a good ten months older than Olivia’s sister, Joan Fontaine (still going at 94) and yet, I don’t think of him as a classic era film actor so much as a modern actor who alternated between classic and contemporary cinema. He could’ve started in the thirties in his twenties but he didn’t start until the early fifties when in his thirties. Somehow, this made all the difference and while Luise, Olivia and Joan remain locked in the classic era for me, Ernie seems modern, like an actor I saw in contemporary films in my teens. He seems that way because he was an actor I saw in contemporary films in my teens and now that he’s gone the world has lost one of the few actors that served as a kind of liaison between classic and contemporary cinema. Ernie himself lamented the great actors like Spencer Tracy going away and now we lament and mourn his loss, the loss of a profoundly gifted actor.

I first saw Borgnine in The Poseidon Adventure in 1972. It was my first big blockbuster experience in the theater and I loved every second of it. My parents took my sister, brother and me and it was such a kick that it still resides in my memory with such warm nostalgia that simply watching it again a couple of years ago with my wife and the youngest, I got a sense of well-being that everything was right with the world. Sure, it’s a soap opera and a predictable, cliched thriller but I don’t really care. It holds a strong place in my heart and Ernest Borgnine is a big part of that. Borgnine plays a cop with a former prostitute for a wife (Stella Stevens) and watching it again I realized how much presence he had as an actor. There he is with such greats as Gene Hackman, Shelly Winters, Jack Albertson, Red Buttons and Stella Stevens and he stands out. He doesn’t just hold his own, he stands out. After The Poseidon Adventure I started looking for Ernie in more movies.

I found him in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch. What a movie and what a showcase for the talents of so many great actors including, of course, Ernest Borgnine. The vision of William Holden and Ernest Borgnine standing up to, and almost outlasting, what seemed to be the entire Mexican army, struck a chord with me (and a few million other people) immediately. It played over and over in my head and Borgnine seemed perfectly suited to play the type of guy who complains and gripes as much as anyone but, in the end, gets the job done (at least until he’s killed). That’s how he felt in both The Poseidon Adventure and The Wild Bunch and I was content to expect that to be the Ernest Borgnine calling card every time I saw him. But then…

My mom had always been a big fan of Marty and she told me about it on several occasions. Not that I could see it (this was before cable and VCRs made such things easy to do) but I could hear about it and imagine how good he must have been. When it finally came on tv (PBS most likely) years later I wasn’t disappointed. My goodness, what a great performance! What a terrific, moving, deeply felt portrayal of an average joe, looking for love and friendship and finally bucking the useless set of rules society has thrown in his face to go for the girl he loves. In the original television version, which I haven’t seen, the title character is played by Rod Steiger and while I have no doubt as to the immense talents of Steiger or to the belief that he probably did an excellent job, I cannot, nonetheless, think of anyone as Marty other than Ernie. That’s unfair to Steiger, I know, but I love Borgnine so much in the role I don’t want to see anyone else take it on.

The character of Marty may have been a different role than the ones I was used to (the tough guy who comes through for his partners in the end) but it still felt close. Marty comes through, too, just in a different way. And then I discovered how good Borgnine was at playing a jerk. Yep, just when I thought I had him pegged I saw From Here to Eternity and, man, what colossal horse’s ass he is, a big, loud bully, making life miserable for Maggio and Prewitt.

After that I saw Bad Day at Black Rock, which has since become an all-time favorite of mine, and wondered, “Will he be the stand-up guy that helps Tracy, the rough and tumble type with the heart of gold, or the bullying jerk type?” Well, all Spencer Tracy had to do was sidle up to the bar and order some food for me to get my answer: Jerk, in the third degree. What kind of guy can play a lovable butcher everyone wants to make happy and a sadistic thug intent on driving Tracy off the road and play both with complete credibility? Ernest Borgnine, that’s who.

I saw him not long after in The Catered Affair and he took yet another turn. He felt like Marty again but after a long marriage, a happy one no doubt, but a long one filled with disappointment and money problems. He wants to give his daughter a great wedding but he also wants to buy his own cab and cabby license and has been saving for years. His wife, played by Bette Davis, wants the wedding nice even if no one else does and insists he use his savings to pay for it. The movie’s standout is Barry Fitzgerald, endlessly entertaining as Uncle Jack Conlon, but the most detailed and pitch perfect performance belongs to Borgnine. It’s not often (not often at all, really) that someone can make Bette Davis look outgunned, but by God, Ernie did.

And I could go on and on with so many more great performances but the fact is, as I said at the start of this piece, Borgnine felt like a modern actor to me, not a classic era actor and that’s because he was so willing to play the good or the bad guy in one movie after another. Character actors last because they don’t feel entitled to the hero lead every time out (or ever). Borgnine also fit in perfectly with action casts in movies like The Flight of the Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen and Ice Station Zebra. He did a lot of tv and movie work right into the 21st century but in 1981 he played Cabbie in Escape from New York and, in a weird way, became the link between the Golden Age of Hollywood and the Modern Age of the Writer/Director. There he was in a cab, just like his character in The Catered Affair, only now he was driving around a massive prison that used to be New York. Borgnine must have thought he was acting in one of the silliest movies ever made (but, in my book at least, a damned entertaining one) and yet he gives a performance so energetic that he still sticks with me more than any other character, even Snake Plissken.

When I got news of Ernest Borgnine’s death, I put up a link to “Bandstand Boogie” on my facebook page, so connected with that song is he in my mind. It’s the song his cabbie character plays over and over in his cab. It makes me think of him every time I hear it (I don’t hear it often but more often than you’d think). We’ll miss Ernie, sorely, and I think a lot of younger movie fans ought to seek him out and get to know him. He provides one of the most rewarding cinematic friendships anyone could ever have.

Rest in Peace, Ernie.

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29 Responses Let Me Tell You Something About Ernie

Posted By Ghijath Naddaf : July 11, 2012 9:02 am

Thank you very much for this Post.
He was a favorite actor of mine,and played in some of my favorite
Movies.
You named some of them.
I want to add “Emperor of the North”.
I can´t imagine another Actor in the role of the Sadistic Shack,
vs.Lee Marvin as A Number 1.
Ernest Borgnine was the last of his Kind.
Rest in Peace

Posted By Winston : July 11, 2012 9:48 am

A lovely tribute. Thanks.

Posted By Jeb : July 11, 2012 11:28 am

Ernie was also great at being a jerk of a boss in the original WILLARD. Wish I could find that one on DVD.

Posted By David : July 11, 2012 11:38 am

A lovely tribute indeed.

Alas, I wonder if de Haviland, Fontaine, and their contemporaries would seem as modern as Borgnine if there were more visible, interesting roles for older women in movies. So many wonderful actresses, especially those who achieved success early in life, seem to disappear once they reach a certain age…

Posted By Ghijath Naddaf : July 11, 2012 11:41 am

Pike:What would you do in his place?He gave his word.
Dutch:He gave his word to a railroad.
Pike:It´s his word!
Dutch:Thats not what counts!It´s who you give it to!

One of the greates Dialogues,in all Movie History.

Posted By Vanwall : July 11, 2012 1:29 pm

Shack. That’s a performance of a lifetime for most actors, and for him, it’s one of many. I saw him on B&W TV as a kid, in lots of films, and yes, “Marty” was a revelation as a kid – the tough guy could melt your heart. He was great in spaghetti westerns, war films, dramas – right up ’til just a year ago or so, he was in new films. His time with Robert Osborne on TCM was a wonderful gift – the guy consumed life with a big smile, and no pretentiousness. I’ll miss him, dang it.

Posted By Tom S : July 11, 2012 3:00 pm

He’s got a whole generation of much younger fans due to his voice work- he had a recurring (and very funny) role on Spongebob Squarepants, and he’s in one of the Golden Age classic episodes of the Simpsons.

Also, he’s in what might be the single creepiest movie featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, Merlin’s Shop of Magical Wonders.

Posted By tdraicer : July 11, 2012 3:31 pm

I remember him first from a surprisingly brutal picture about the Black Hand called Pay Or Die, in which he was the Italian detective taking on the mob. It was one of those Million Dollar Movies that were broadcast multiple times in the same week, and as a kid I was frightened by the violence in the film but kept coming back to it because of Borgnine’s performance.

Thanks for the moving tribute to a wonderful actor!

Posted By John Maddox Roberts : July 11, 2012 5:01 pm

For me, two roles always defined Borgnine: as Fatso Judson in From Here to Eternity and as Dutch Engstrom in The Wild Bunch: two movies so packed with world-class talent and performances that it seems impossible that he could have stood out so prominently in supporting roles, yet he did. His total screen time in “Eternity” was probably all of five minutes, yet his performance was indelible. I still wish Zinneman had let Fatso have his dying line, though. Borgnine rehearsed that one line endlessly, but found when he saw the movie that it had been cut.

Posted By David : July 11, 2012 5:12 pm

Good post Greg.

Despite having seen it many times, when Pike and the Gorch brothers walk out of the house of the women they’ve just been with, look down at the still whittling Dutch, and he looks up at them, reads their expressions, knowingly smiles, then gets to his feet and loads up with them, the hairs still stand up on the back of my neck.

Posted By Cheryl : July 11, 2012 7:21 pm

Thanks for a wonderful tribute. I’ve always loved Ernie and also remember seeing him in “The Poseidon Adventure” as a child. The lights of Hollywood got a little dimmer for me when I heard about his passing.

I was lucky to see him in person two years ago when he appeared at a film festival for a screening of “Another Harvest Moon”. He was so jovial and just seemed so damn likeable.

And I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I even enjoyed him in the TV sitcom “The Single Guy”.

Posted By Grand Old Movies : July 11, 2012 9:18 pm

Thanks for such a lovely post, it really highlights Borgnine’s importance as an actor and as a cinematic icon. He gives a beautiful performance in Marty; but one of my favorites of his is his role as a military general in The Dirty Dozen – it’s a small part, but he always stood out in it for me, by bringing a welcome sense of humor and panache to this gritty war film. He really showed that there are no small parts, only small actors – and he was a great one.

Posted By Susan Doll : July 11, 2012 10:39 pm

You made me realize that Ernest Borgnine has been in some of my favorite movies–Black Rock, Marty, Wild Bunch, Escape from NY. I saw him in person once in Milwaukee as the grand marshal of the circus parade. The crowd loved him and he was smiling from ear to ear at the recognition.

Posted By Cool Bev : July 12, 2012 7:48 am

Wow, no love for McHale’s Navy? Maybe because it was such an ensemble piece, with Joe Flynn, Tim Conway, Carl Ballantine, etc. Maybe it’s the way he just ambles through the show. But Borgnine will always be Quentin McHale to me.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : July 12, 2012 8:21 am

Thank you, everyone. Glad to see so much love for a great actor like Borgnine.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : July 12, 2012 8:21 am

Tom – My two youngest kids both watched SpongeBob and I told them both at the time that a great actor named Ernest Borgnine was voicing Mermaid Man. When we watched Poseidon Adventure, I said, “That’s him right there.” This was very exciting for them.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : July 12, 2012 8:24 am

tdraicer – Yet again, you’ve named a movie I haven’t seen. Pay or Die just made my list of must-sees soon.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : July 12, 2012 8:25 am

Vanwall – so true! Someone as kind and generous and likable as Borgnine could sure play sadistic well, couldn’t he? Amazing.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : July 12, 2012 8:26 am

I saw him in person once in Milwaukee as the grand marshal of the circus parade. The crowd loved him and he was smiling from ear to ear at the recognition.

Wow, I’d love to have seen him in person. What a great smile he had too, so joyous and full of life.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : July 12, 2012 8:28 am

John – I’ve heard the last line story before but can’t place it now. What was his last line that got cut?

Posted By Ghijath Naddaf : July 12, 2012 9:56 am

Just found this.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/video-essay-beavers-lodge-emperor-of-the-north-pole#.T_17iVGjDJx

Posted By Anonymous : July 12, 2012 2:22 pm

In the book (and in the original Taradash script) the dying Fatso looks up at Prewitt and says, “You’ve killed me. Why’d you want to kill me?” I think that Zinneman cut the line because it made Fatso seem just a bit sympathetic. In the book there is a long sequence (also not in the movie) where Prewitt is in the stockade and Fatso beats another soldier to death (not Maggio, as in the film). A philisophical inmate explains to Prewitt that Fatso is just a cog in the system and feels no guilt for killing the man since it’s just part of his job. Fatso really has no idea why Prewitt would want to kill him in revenge.

Posted By Juana Maria : July 12, 2012 4:31 pm

Greg Ferrara:Thanks for the article,I just wanted to cry when I read of Borgnine’s passing a few days ago. He has been one of my top favorite actors for many years. I first saw him in “The Poseison Adventure”,I noticed how you didn’t have to say which one.I have seen a ton of his films,your favorites are mine too! I won’t rehash what others have stated if I can help it! I had just included him and his marrige to Katy Jurado in the post about Hollywood marriages. I have seen him in some rather obscure movies,such as “High Risk”(1980). I bought it at the Dollar Tree and it had at least 3 Oscar Winners in it:Anthony Quinn,James Coburn,and Ernest Borgnine,who plays a gun smuggler for all of one whole minute!I’m being silly,but seriously if you were to blink you’d miss Borgnine in that movie! I too love the films that have both Borgine and Lee Marvin! They were friends in real life so seeing trying to kill each other is hard to believe after learning that! I think Ernie,I always have referred to him as Ernie Borgnine,was really a nice guy and not as scary as he portrayed on film! I don’t think he was anything like the character he played in “Hannie Caulder”. Have any of you thought about how Ernie and Charles Bronson were in at least 3 movies together? 1)”Juabal”;2)”Vera Cruz”;3)”The Dirty Dozen”.I am quite a fan of Ernie Borgnine,on August 10,2006, I drew from memory a portrait of Ernie in pencil. When my twin sister saw it,she said it look just like him. I got his gap tooth grin perfectly if I do say so myself! I love his work and I felt like a friend of his even though we’ve never met! I love his work for made-for-TV projects on the Hallmark Channel too. Such as “Trail to Hope Rose”;”Aces & Eights”;”Grandpa for Christmas”. He will be missed,by me especially.

Posted By Jenni : July 13, 2012 6:43 pm

Great post, as usual. We were on vacation and I didn’t learn of Mr. Borgnine’s passing until after the fact. My kids knew him through his voice work on SpongeBob Squarepants, as the role of Mermaid Man, a retired senior citizen, sort of a spoof on the Batman character from tv. I first saw him on the tv show, McHale’s Navy, which was in syndication when I saw it, and didn’t realize until I was older that he was a movie actor, too. I loved his role in Marty so much, that when I saw the VHS tape of the film set out on a “free” table at a garage sale, I snapped it up quickly. He will definitely be missed, a great actor who played his roles so well, and seemed like a kindly, generous soul offscreen. RIP Mr. Borgnine.

Posted By PETER : July 13, 2012 9:06 pm

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO VERSATILITY , DOESN’T IT ? AFTER YEARS OF MENACING AND THREATENING THE LIKES OF FRANK SINATRA , SPENCER TRACY , AND RANDOLPH SCOTT JUST TO NAME A FEW , HE DOES A COMPLETE ABOUT FACE AND TURNS IN AN INCREDIBLY REAL , SYMPATHETIC , AND OSCAR WINNING PERFORMANCE AS A LONELY BUTCHER NAMED ” MARTY ” . TAKE A GLIMPSE AT HIS FILMOGRAPHY AND YOU’LL FIND JUST ABOUT EVERY GENRE OF FILM REPRESENTED … WAR TO COMEDY , WESTERNS TO PERIOD ADVENTURES …FILM NOIR , CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE , DISASTER EPIC , HORROR… GOOD LORD , HE WAS EVEN CAST IN A MID-FIFTIES MUSICAL BIOPIC , ” THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE ” , ALTHOUGH I DON’T KNOW IF HE WAS CALLED UPON TO SING OR DANCE . BUT , ISN’T THAT WHAT A TOP NOTCH CHARACTER ACTOR DOES ? … HE PLAYS A WIDE VARIETY OF ROLES , AND DEPENDING ON THE PART , YOU COME AWAY EITHER LOVING OR LOATHING HIM , BUT ONE WAY OR THE OTHER , YOU KNOW YOU’VE JUST SEEN A FINE CRAFTSMAN DOING ONE HELL OF A JOB. I’M GLAD HE ENJOYED A LONG AND FULFILLING LIFE .I’M GLAD THAT HE CONTINUED TO PLY HIS CRAFT SO THAT A NEW GENERATION OF FILMGOERS MIGHT KNOW WHO HE WAS AND , PERHAPS , BE INTERESTED ENOUGH TO SEEK OUT MORE OF HIS WORK …. AND , LUCKILY , THERE’S A LOT OF IT TO DISCOVER / REDISCOVER .

Posted By robbushblog : July 15, 2012 3:09 am

The very first thing I remember ever seeing Ernest Borgnine in was The Double McGuffin, which was a fun Joe Camp movie about some kids at a prep school who catch wind of a murder plot. It co-starred Goerge Kennedy, Elke Sommer and Lisa Whelchel (Blair from The Facts of Life). Ed “Too Tall” Jones and Lyle Alzado were also in it as Ernie’s henchmen. He was a bad guy in the movie and it was a load of fun, even after we watched it over and over again on The Movie Channel as kids. He was scary as a bad guy in that movie.

I also liked him on The Single Guy. I thought he was the best part of the show.

He was great in The Poseidon Adventure, From Here To Eternity, Bad Day At Black Rock, The Wild Bunch and The Dirty Dozen, but he will always be Marty to me. He was so sad and touching in that part and it felt so great at the end when he decided that he was going to choose who he wanted to be with and not let others’ opinions cloud his better judgment. The scene at the dinner table with his mother is amazing to see. He poured his heart out on that plate of spaghetti. It’s a beautiful movie and a beautiful performance from a helluva great actor and a helluva great guy. Ernie will be sorely missed.

Posted By robbushblog : July 15, 2012 3:10 am

Greg- Rod Steiger did well in the part, but after you’ve seen BORG9 in the role, you’re kind of spoiled and anyone else just won’t do.

Posted By Juana Maria : July 15, 2012 2:43 pm

I have seen all of the Ernest Borgnine & Lee Marvin films with them together:”The Stranger Wore a Gun”;”Violent Saturday”;”Bad Day at Black Rock”;”the Dirty Dozen” & “Emperor of the North”. I have seen him in the strangly titled:”Go Naked in the World”,I thought he was brilliant in the film. I have seen “Chuka”,”the Oscar”.”The Last Command”,”Johnny Guitar”,I have to stop listing the films of his I’ve seen because I think I must have seen more than half of all the films in his career! I’ve seen/heard him on TV too! Yes,”SpongeBob Squarepants”,but long before that he did a voice work on “Pinky & the Brain”.He had a TV series called “Airwolf”,which I have seen a couple of epeisodes before. You can find it on Netflix. He was “Murder She Wrote”,”magnum P.I.”.”the Commish”,and “Home Improvement”. In that episode of “hime Improvement”called “Birds of a Feather Flock to Taylor”,it had not only Ernie but also Jack Elam! They were in a few films together:”Vera Cruz”,”Jubal”,and “Hannie Caulder”. Then there are the two movies with Ernie and L.Q.Jones:”Torpedo Run” and “The Wild Bunch”. It is so nice to find others who loved and cared about Ernie’s movies like me. Thanks.

Posted By fumanchu32 : July 19, 2012 12:57 am

Fatso in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, Coley in BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK & Dutch in THE WILD BUNCH. I fancy the keen irony (and great acting chops) that a sweet guy like Ernie was one of the screens greatest villains. RIP.

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