E-mail a friendErnest Borgnine
airdate November 7, 2007
Actor Ernest Borgnine has been instantly recognizable throughout a 50-plus-year career in show business. He's appeared in hundreds of television and feature film productions, including the popular series, McHale's Navy, and the film, Marty, for which he won a Best Actor Academy Award. A World War II vet, Borgnine is in his ninth decade and still racking up credits, with voiceover work for The Simpsons and SpongeBob SquarePants and as star of the Hallmark Channel movie, A Grandpa for Christmas.
Ernest Borgnine
Tavis: I am pleased and honored to welcome Ernest Borgnine to this program. The legendary actor has enjoyed a terrific career in Hollywood, with success in film and TV, from his breakout role from "From Here to Eternity" to his award-winning performance in "Marty" and so much more over the years. His latest project is a Hallmark Channel holiday film called "A Grandpa for Christmas." The film premieres November 24th. Here now, a scene from "A Grandpa for Christmas."
[Clip]
Tavis: (Laughs) A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Borgnine.
Ernest Borgnine: My pleasure.
Tavis: I'm glad to have you here.
Borgnine: Please call me Ernie.
Tavis: I know, you keep telling me that. It's so hard to say “Ernie” to a legend. (Laughter) The first time I remember shaking the hand of anybody who had the nerve to kill Frank Sinatra.
Borgnine: It was easy. (Laughter) His son said to me one day, "I remember when my dad first showed me the picture, and when the picture was over," he said, "I turned to my dad and I said, 'I'm going to kill that man when I meet him.'" And his dad said, "No, no, no." He said, "When you do, go over there and put your arms around him because he helped me win an Academy Award." (Laughter)
Tavis: How did people treat you when on film you kill off Frank Sinatra in his heyday?
Borgnine: I was the most hated man in America. I remember there were a couple of policemen that stopped me on Ventura Boulevard. I made a great big U-turn, you know? And you can't do that on Ventura Boulevard or any boulevard. Anyway, (makes noise), right behind me. I said, "Oh, nuts." And I had a hot pizza right beside me.
And I took out my card and the fella came and he looked at it, he looked at me, and looked at the card and looked. He says, “Hey, Joe, I caught the SOB that killed Frank Sinatra," and gave me a ticket. (Laughter)
Tavis: Well, Sinatra was right; you helped him win an Academy Award for that film. But you have your own for "Marty."
Borgnine: Yup. Got it later on. And that was a picture that was odd, because it wasn't supposed to really be finished. They wanted to make the picture and only halfway, and then put it up on the shelf and forget about it. And their tax man, Heck Lancaster's (sp) tax man said, "No, you have to finish the picture, show it one time, and then you can take your tax loss."
Tavis: Why did they not want to finish it?
Borgnine: Tax loss.
Tavis: It was the loss, yeah.
Borgnine: Yeah, they wanted to lose money. Well, there you go.
Tavis: I wish I had that problem.
Borgnine: (Laughs) Me, too.
Tavis: Trying to lose money. (Laughter) So what do you make of the fact that for a film that wasn't supposed to see the light of day, you end up winning a best actor Academy Award for that project?
Borgnine: Not only that, but I also won the British film academy award.
Tavis: The Golden Globe.
Borgnine: Lord, we had it all. Even the churches, everybody you can imagine gave us all the awards of everything. The Golden Palm Award from Monaco and France, and it was just amazing. And to this day, I kind of look at it and say, "Hey, you lucky son of a gun." But we did it. But it was a wonderful picture simply because I think you don't get that kind of writing anymore.
And Paddy Chayefsky was that kind of a writer. And I said to him one day, "Why, if you're a so-called actor, too, why don't you play it?" He said, "You think if I was any kind of an actor that I wouldn't?" He said, "But I'd rather let you do it and watch." So, okay, fine. And that was it.
Tavis: See, I was too young. I wasn't born then. I missed all the "From Here to Eternity - "
Borgnine: You weren't born yet?
Tavis: I missed "From Here to Eternity."
Borgnine: Oh, that's right; this was way back in '55.
Tavis: I missed "From Here to Eternity," I missed "Marty," but I came around just in time for "McHale's Navy," so (laughter) I got a chance to see your next - and I love the story of how, in part, you convinced yourself to do this with a little boy that knocks on your door one day. I'll let you tell the story, but it was a little kid that actually kind of convinces you that you might want to do "McHale's Navy."
Borgnine: Yeah, my agent had been calling me and said, "We've got this picture for you, this television show, and we know you love the water and everything else, and we'd like you to do 'McHale's Navy.'" And I had just returned from making pictures over in England and in Europe and everything, and I said, "No, no, I'm a motion picture actor now." (Laughter)
Well, he said, "If you change your mind, let me know, will you?" So next morning, as the good lord would have it, came a knock on the door and some young kid is selling chocolate bars for some school out there in the Valley. And he said, "Mister, you look awfully familiar, what's your name?" I said, "My name is James Arness."
He said, "No, he does 'Gunsmoke.'" I said, "No, no, I'm just kidding you. My name is really Richard Boone." "No, he does 'Have Gun Will Travel.'" I said, “Son of a gun, this kid knows them all.” I said, well, I'll tell him now and he'll know. "My name is really Ernest Borgnine." Zilch. Nothing.
Tavis: So goes the "I'm a movie star," yeah.
Borgnine: I gave him his money, and he said, "I know I've seen you." "Thank you, son, goodbye." Called up my agent and said, "That part still open?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Good, I'll do it." He said, "What changed your mind?" I said, "None of your business." (Laughter)
Tavis: That's a great story. You realized the impact, obviously, that TV could have, and you rethought that situation.
Borgnine: Do you know something, I never realized - and I had done live television, a lot of it, from New York. I did a lot of television here in Hollywood, but I never realized the importance of being in a show that went all over the world. In Australia, I'm a hero. I remember one time I went down there, we were supposed to make a picture called - oh, golly, it can't come to mind right now, but with Johnny Mills and all the rest of them.
And I said, “Oh, I'll go down to Willamalou Docks (sp)” and a fella said, "No, nobody goes to Willamalou Docks." I said, "Come on. They wanted us to hear the idiom of the Australian language. And I was supposed to talk like one. I said, "Okay, fine, we'll go down there." Well, we walked into this place and you enter a bar in Australia, it's like walking into somebody's house, let alone club.
And a sudden silence, and this fella looked at me and I said, "I'll have a schooner and one for me mate here." And he looked at me and said, "Hey, it's Marty." And also, "McHale's Navy." Well, the whole place went up in a roar. It was marvelous.
Tavis: You mentioned earlier that you had, at one point in your career, you had just come back from making a bunch of movies in Europe. I did not realize how many films you did, in fact, make in Europe, in part because you speak more than English.
Borgnine: Yes, I speak Italian and a little Spanish and a little bit of French, a little bit of English. (Laughter)
Tavis: But well enough to make some movies in other languages.
Borgnine: Yeah, sure, yeah. Well, it's simple, and so far I made something like 190, 191, something like that. I'll go until I make about 210 and then forget about it.
Tavis: That's a great segue to ask you why it is, your talent notwithstanding, you have guest-starred on everything, you've got an Academy Award on your shelf, and Golden Globe - you've done it all. They tell me you're 90. I need to see your driver's license. I don't believe it, but they tell me you're 90. I need to see this, man.
Borgnine: Son of a gun. I've got to show you -
Tavis: Ninety? I don't believe 90 years old.
Borgnine: I've got to show you.
Tavis: (Laughs) I don't believe it.
Borgnine: I've got to show you.
Tavis: Because I was trying to ask, why are you still doing this?
Borgnine: Now, don't ask me why I've got an Oregon license, please, but just look at the -
Tavis: Okay, I won't (unintelligible). (Laughter)
Borgnine: 1917?
Tavis: Son of a gun. (Laughter) Ernie Borgnine is 90 year sold. Wow. You don't have to do this. Why still do it? I want to talk about the Hallmark project in a second, but -
Borgnine: Why do you think I stay so young? By doing it.
Tavis: Staying busy, huh?
Borgnine: Absolutely. I tell you, if you just let yourself, put it bluntly, rot on a chair, you're gone. But if you keep going and do the kind of work that you like to do and get paid for it to boot, hey, what could be wrong?
Tavis: So tell me about this Hallmark project, "A Grandpa for Christmas."
Borgnine: "Grandpa for Christmas." It was a project that struck pretty close to home because it's about this man whose wife ran off with somebody else, and the kids, of course, he had a little granddaughter he didn't even know he had. And one day this policeman shows up and said, "Hey, you're so-and-so?”Yes?" "Your daughter's been in a terrible accident," and so on and so forth, and you've also got a little granddaughter.
I didn't know these things. And the thing that hit me was because I had gone through a terrible divorce where one day I went up to get my little children to take them out, and my little girl said to me, "Daddy, we don't want to see you anymore." And my heart hit my boots. I said, "Why?" And I looked at their mother, and "Oh, don't look at me, I had nothing to do with it." "No, of course not."
But I don't say I'm the most perfect husband in the world, but I have tried to keep my family going and do it. Anyway, it hit pretty close to home when I read this script, and so we did it, and it turned out very good, and everybody's all excited about it. And everybody wants to publicize it, and hey, we've got - who knows, you might even win an Emmy. I said, "Well, that'd be nice because I've got an Oscar waiting for her." (Laughter)
Tavis: How fortunate do you feel - and I ask this against the backdrop of the fact that as we sit here, of course, on sidewalks all across this city and in New York, writers are on strike - and I hope that gets resolved, and obviously there is no business for you without people writing the material. So against the backdrop of writers on strike even as we speak, how fortunate do you feel at the age of 90 to still be able to do this? To still have people want you to do this?
Borgnine: Oh, man, I'm the most fortunate person in the world. I am, because not very many people like me, at my age, are doing this kind of stuff. And everybody looks at me like you did and say, "No, you can't be 90." And it's one of those crazy things. The only thing is you have to prove to some directors today and also to producers that you're able to do this.
Tavis: Right.
Borgnine: And I remember -
Tavis: Is that offensive to you?
Borgnine: No, not at all.
Tavis: Come on, you're Ernie Borgnine.
Borgnine: No, makes no difference. Hey, listen, it's just a name. And believe me, you're only as good as your last picture. And I had one fella come up to me one day, and we had to go in and he wanted to see me about a picture with Jack Nicholson and so on. And he said, "What have you done?" (Laughs) And I said, “Well, take your choice.”
Tavis: Oh, man. And you didn't just get up and walk out of the room?
Borgnine: No, no, why? I laughed a little bit, and the producer said, "No, no, no, no, this, you know, it's - " "Please, no strain." Hey, the fella hadn't been around too much. But hey, listen, but you have to prove yourself, and when you prove yourself, then people stand up and say, "Hey, by golly, this guy's for real." And so you get hired.
But it's kind of - I just finished a western, for heaven's sakes. A western called "Aces and Eights." And I want to tell you, they'd better move over "3:10 to Yuma," because believe me, this director, Craig Baxley, he did something with a buck and a half that they would spend just $100,000 just to get. And it's going to be out sometime in the later part of this year, pretty close after Christmas, I guess.
But "Aces and Eights," a western, me on horseback, and I'm an old curmudgeon that won't let people come through, especially the railroad, on my property.
Tavis: Ernie Borgnine riding horses at 90. (Laughter) In westerns.
Borgnine: Easy.
Tavis: And starring on Hallmark channel's, "A Grandpa for Christmas", premiering, again, November the 24th. It is so rare - I say this with all due respect - it is so rare - and I do this every night - but it's so rare to meet someone who is a legend, an icon, and have them be as kind and as gentle and wonderful in person as you expected they would be. What a delight to meet you.
Borgnine: Tavis, it's been a pleasure, believe me.
Tavis: I'm honored to have you on the program.
Borgnine: Thank you, sir.
Tavis: Thank you, sir. Ernie Borgnine. That's our show for tonight.
Back to November 7, 2007