Ernest Borgnine, an on-screen man to remember, passed away on July 8, 2012 at the age of 95. Neither his huge on-screen experience nor his naval days glory could save him from the kidney failure led death. However, the mermaid man of the Spongebob Squarepant (1999-2012) will always be remembered for his acting contributions.

Now moving on to his body configuration, the man with Italian ethnicity was an average- tall man with semi-towering height of 5 feet and 9 inches. To be frank, he never was the man that the showbiz asked.  The naval man who had won several navy awards including World War II Victory Award had stocky body and unusual look that didn’t appeal the showbiz physically. Also, his creasy face and the gap between the teeth didn’t helped at all.

Call it the survival of fittest, the Connecticut born man with stupendous personality greatly tuned up with tough roles that he took during his initial acting days. He joined acting in his late 20’s after retiring from the navy.  

Born on January 24, 1917, Ernes Efron Borgnino got retirement from his navy career in September, 1945. However, he had no firm career choice after retiring from the navy.

His childhood days had passed playing sports and receiving education. After graudating from high school, he had joined the navy.

So, why did he join the acting industry?

He acted as per as his straightforward mother’s suggestion. His mother had suggested him to get himself busy in something as his awards weren’t going to earn him living. It was his mother who thought that her son should join acting. But, why do you know?

He loving mother had seen her son since his young days attracting attention differently. She suggested that the person who is so good at making fool of him should join acting. The idea didn’t appeal his father though. But, he went for it as it was certainly better than his current local factory job.

So, he followed his mother suggestions to join acting and later graduated in acting. After that, stage roles in promising projects such as State of The Union and The Glass Menagerie landed the intern of the Barter Theatre his Broadway debut in Harvey, where he starred as a nurse.  He was so popular with the stage audience that he couldn’t resist trying the next big thing and that was acting on-screen.
We remember him for his tough character roles in Box-office hits such as From Here to Eternity, Johny Guitar, Vera Cruz, Bad Day at Black Rock and The Wild Bunch.  Also, who can forget his Academy award winning performance in the 1955’s unusual romance namely Marty?

He surprised everyone by rocking the role of warmhearted socially awkward butcher in the romantic hit Martyr.  What a change of character it was for the man who had built his entire reputation playing villainous tough roles.
Also, many people who had watched the television version of the movie but not the movie itself thought he was a Jewish in real life, as Marty was a Jewish character in the television version.

Post 1950, he established himself as a consistent actor starring in reputed movies such as The Fight of The Phoenix , Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra, The Poseidon Adventure, Emperor of the North, Convoy, The Black Hole, All Quite On The Western Front, The Escape From New York, A Grandpa From Christmas, Another Harvest Moon and Red, and in countless popular tv shows including  Run for Your life, Highway to Heaven, Frontier Justice, McHale's Navy , The Single Guy and ER.

Not surprisingly, he enjoyed a massive net worth up to $50 million US dollars prior to his death.

If you didn’t know, his married life was as rich as his acting career, but wasn’t consistent because of numerous divorces. The man who experienced five marriages and four divorces, the Mr. Ugly was the father of five children. The wife/widow of the award-winning actor is no other than Norweigien-American Businesswoman Tova Traesnaes.

And, his third spouse was no other than the undisputed First Lady of Musical Stage and popular gay icon namely American actress and singer Ethel Merman.

Keep connected to our site to get more wiki on him. We hope you enjoyed the biography styled article of the man who worked in the industry till the age of 93 with never changing passion and commitment. We love social networking, don’t we? Let’s hope there will come a day when dead people could use twitter. If it was real, what would you tweet to Ernest. Please, do comment.