Ernest Borgnine's Real Name: Ermes Effron Borgnino

Quick answer: Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917, in Hamden, Connecticut, according to BBC News and Encyclopaedia Britannica. The BBC says his parents, Italian immigrants, later changed the family name to Borgnine. He died on July 8, 2012, in Los Angeles, at 95.

Real name and early life

The BBC says the family moved to New Haven in 1923 and changed the surname from Borgnino to Borgnine.

He had no early ambition to act. After leaving high school in 1935, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Discharged in 1941, he re-enlisted after Pearl Harbor and served until the end of World War II, the BBC says. He then worked factory jobs until his mother suggested that his forceful personality might suit the stage. He enrolled at a drama school in Hartford and joined the Barter Theatre in Virginia, where audiences once paid for seats with farm produce.

Career highlights

His first breakthrough came as the Gentleman Caller in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. Broadway work in Harvey followed. His first major film role was the sadistic Sergeant "Fatso" Judson in From Here to Eternity (1953), who beats Frank Sinatra's Private Maggio. The BBC says his stocky build and gruff voice led to many villain roles, including in Bad Day at Black Rock with Spencer Tracy.

He broke the stereotype in Marty (1955), playing a shy, sensitive New York butcher. Competing against Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra, James Dean, and James Cagney, he won the Academy Award for best actor, the BBC says, as well as a BAFTA; Grace Kelly presented the Oscar. Later films included The Wild Bunch and The Poseidon Adventure. On television he starred in McHale's Navy and played Dominic Santini in Airwolf in the 1980s. The BBC says he received an Emmy nomination in his 90s for a 2009 guest role on ER.

The BBC says he married five times, including brief marriages to actress Katy Jurado and to Ethel Merman, whose marriage to him lasted barely a month. His last wife, Tova, was a cosmetics entrepreneur.

Death

The BBC says he died of renal failure in a Los Angeles hospital with his family at his side, citing his spokesman, Harry Flynn. His family said he had been in excellent health until a recent illness. Britannica gives the date as July 8, 2012.

Name notes for searchers

Borgnine is the family's changed surname, not a stage name he invented. Britannica lists Ermes Effron Borgnino as his original name. Library of Congress records cross-reference him as Borgnino, Ermes, and as Borgnine, Ermes Effron. His autobiography, Ernie, uses his nickname.