ERNEST BORGNINE: FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

NationalEnquirer.com

Hollywood legend, “McHALE’s NAVY” star ERNEST BORGNINE sets sail at 95. 

Borgnine, who’s thesping career endured for over half a century, netted an Oscar for his role as lonely guy “MARTY" in 1956.

He also carved a niche out as a tough guy.

"Fatso” Borgnine stuck a shiv in FRANK SINATRA and battled BURT LANCASTER in beloved Pearl Harbor war flick “From Here to Eternity”, led “The Dirty Dozen” to victory and set a new standard for brutish wild west thuggery in “Emperor of the North” and “The Wild Bunch”.

Unlike many stars, Borgnine was happy to play the heavy or key character part in such classics as “The Vikings” with Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas, "Ice Station Zebra" with Rock Hudson and "Bad Day at Black Rock" with Spencer Tracy and Anne Francis.

"I don't care whether a role is 10 minutes long or two hours," Borgine said in 1973. "And I don't care whether my name is up there on top, either. Matter of fact, I'd rather have someone else get top billing; then if the picture bombs, he gets the blame, not me."

During the 1960s, he took TV by storm in the hit sitcom “McHale’s Navy” as the titular sea-faring lug with such masters of comedy like Tim Conway and Joe Flynn alongside. The McHales gang also spun off into motion pictures with "McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force" — one of the rare series to spawn a feature film during the same time the hot show was still on the air.

Borgnine also helped inagurate the disaster film genre with his memorial turn in Irwin Allen's "The Poseidon Adventure".

A Navy-vet himself, Borgnine never retired from acting. He became the oldest actor to ever receive a Golden Globe nomination in 2007, and he was nominated for an Emmy for his appearances on ER.

Ernie even voiced a character for kidvid hit “Spongebob Squarepants”

His most recent big screen appearance was in “Red” a geriatric action flick with Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren.

Borgnine's wife and children were with him when he died of renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Adios, amigo.