Ernie: The Autobiography

Well written by the author. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the life experiences of this great actor. I consider Ernest Borgnine to be an American icon.

I found myself enthralled with Mr. Borgnine's story and with the manner in which he told it. I felt as if I were sitting at his kitchen table and listening to him personally tell me his story. It's captivating, endearing, informative, but mostly, it's personal. I loved it. I couldn't put it down. Buon lavoro, Sig. Borgnine!

I was familiar with Ernie Borgnine's work in "Airwolf" and "The Single Guy" and of course being the beloved hubby of my favorite perfume lady Tova. She wrote a great deal about him in her book so I picked up Ernie's book to hear his side of the story.... and what a story it is! This book was a real treat! I felt like I was sitting with my favorite relative and they were telling me their life story.. filled with humor and such great detail! Ernie is 91 years young God bless him so he has a story to tell!! From his early days as a son of Italian immigrants to his Navy days that really was such a big part of his life and then his long career in acting. He tells everything with a big dose of humor and modesty and you really feel his love of people and of America ... he kept me entertained throughout the whole book! I would highly recommend this book!

It's been years since he finally decided to write his memoirs but once he did Borgnine's story was well worth the wait. Excellent anecdotes on every page keep the reader fascinated in this informal, personalized tome. Always a fan of Marty and the Catered Affair, I was constantly reminded throughout this book of the films and projects he had been involved in that were also wonderful reminders of his talent (Pay or Die, The Wild Bunch, Vince Lombardi; the list is amazing!). He's also wonderfully candid about the schlock he's made (The Oscar, The Devil's Rain, etc). The best stories must be read in his own words to be truly appreciated. As I say, god bless you Ernest Borgnine!

Character actor Enest Borgnine sums up his personal philosophy in the words of an old sign he saw dangling from a street vendor's hot chestnut cart in the teeming slum streets in New York, where he was born ninety-odd years ago. These words have stuck with him ever since: "I don't want to set the world on fire," the sign read. "I just want to keep my nuts warm." Now he is the oldest living person to have won an Oscar and he's still acting with his lovely makeup mogul wife, Tova, to give him support. He was middle aged when he started to act, after a ten year stint in the Navy during WWII, and so he came to us fully grown. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY wasn't his first film role, but this A-list Fred Zinnemann production got him noticed by all the critics and put him in line for the roles to come. He was married to a nurse, Rhoda, whom he calls a "stout woman," and then he met and married two entertainers, Katy Jurado and Ethel Merman, before his disastrous late 60s marriage to the unfortunate Donna, who comes off like a hustling gold-digger here. Maybe all these wives were just rehearsals for the real thing, Tova, whose soap is so rich that, even in the harsh Arab countries in which Zeffirelli directed Ernest Borgnine in the prizewinning miniseries JESUS OF NAZARETH, Franco Z found he could work up lather even in the hard water of the native springs. Ernie worked with many greats and usually has something secret to tell about each of them. He's old Hollywood, and knew Cagney, Tracy, Stewart, Cooper, Gable, etc. When Burt Lancaster was asked if he was endangering his heterosexual reputation by frequenting Rock Hudson's all-boy parties, he replied, "I go to the opera, too, Ernie--doesn't mean I sing." At the premiere of Convoy, star Kris Kristofferson turned to Ernie and confessed he didn't remember making the movie. Now that's rock and roll! Robert Aldrich scared Lee Marvin to get him to stop making racialized remarks about Jim Brown on the set of The Dirty Dozen. Then there were the roles Ernie almost got! He wanted to play The Godfather, but Coppola held out for Brando. Gene Wilder had the part in the Poseidon Adventure, but lost it when scheduling conflicts forced him to withdraw--lucky break for Red Buttons! Lee Marvin was offered the part of Quint in JAWS, but declined. Same with Mitchum and PATTON. George Lindsay (Goober) was supposed to play the part of Mr. Spock. In fact Borgnine seems obsessed with this sort of "what-if" alternative Hollywood history, I wonder why. Ernie knew them all and got along fine even with legends with whom he did not work, telling John Wayne, for example, that they never worked together because "you're afraid to work with good actors, Duke." Wayne did a double take, then realized that Ernie was just joshing him. Borgnine's career wasn't all four and five star movies, as he is the first to admit; he did whatever he was offered, and among them many of the all-time golden turkeys. But he always seem

"Ernie" is ninety-one year old Ernest Borgnine's lighthearted account of his more than five decades on the stage, in film, and on television. What has sustained this versatile character actor in a business that often grinds people down is the strong "old-fashioned work ethic" that he inherited from his Italian immigrant parents. Borgnine boasts that he has appeared in quite a few of the "100 Most Enjoyably Awful Movies of All Time" as listed in "The Official Razzie Movie Guide." Not all of his movies were classics, but he claims that "every one of them was a learning experience." "Ernie" is a nostalgic autobiography in which Borgnine revels in his love of acting and especially of old-time moviemaking. He worked with many of the greats, including Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper, Montgomery Clift, Betty Davis, Jimmy Stewart, and Kirk Douglas. In addition, he appeared in a variety of genres, including comedies, westerns, war dramas, horror films, Biblical epics, and even a musical! He portrayed "good guys, cops, crooks, murderers, mob bosses, western villains, and an Amish farmer," and became Asian, Jewish, Irish, Swedish, or Mexican, when the part called for it. Much to his delight, his films were directed by such notables as Delbart Mann, Robert Mulligan, Fred Zinnemann ("From Here to Eternity"), and Michael Curtiz. In an informal and conversational style, Borgnine emphasizes his critically acclaimed performances in "From Here to Eternity" and "Marty," but does not neglect to mention his less artistic films, such as "The Poseidon Adventure" and "Demetrius and the Gladiators." He also describes his stint in the popular "McHale's Navy," in which he played the Commander of a PT Boat in the South Pacific during World War II. Borgnine spends little time on his five marriages, only one of which endured. Ernie and Tova Borgnine have been together for thirty-five years. Ernest Borgnine is a down-to-earth and affable tour guide who provides an entertaining overview of the last half century of show business. For those old enough to remember Borgnine in his heyday, this book will bring back fond memories of a bygone era. Although he is in no way a polished writer, the author's self-deprecating style, unabashed love for his craft, and colorful anecdotes make "Ernie" a treat for movie buffs.