Sunday, July 08, 2012

Ernest Borgnine, Oscar Winning Star Of "Marty," Star Of TV's "McHale's Navy," R. I. P.

Long-time veteran actor Ernest Borgnine, who won the Academy Award of 1955 for Best Actor for his title-role portrayal in "Marty, " then starred in the 1960s TV sitcom McHale's Navy, passed away on Sunday from renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at age 95.


Mr. Borgnine starred in "Marty," which was based on a Paddy Chayefsky television play (that starred Rod Steiger) in which he played a 34-year-old bachelor who fears he's so unattractive that he would never find romance.  At a dance, he meets a girl with a similar fear.


The film, which won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1955, also netted the little statuettes for Mr. Chayefsky and director Delbert Mann.


Ernest (a Navy vet himself) would go on to portray US Navy Lieutenant Commander Quentin McHale, who commanded a World War II PT boat with a crew of misfits and malcontents.  Commander McHale was a con artist who forever tricked his superior officer, played by the late Joe Flynn.


The ABC Network sitcom, McHale's Navy, which also co-starred Tim Conway, ran from 1962 to 1966.



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