Actor Ernest Borgnine dead at 95

(CNN) -- Film and television actor Ernest Borgnine, won an Academy Award for portrayal of a lovelorn butcher in 1955's "Marty," has died age 95, his manager said Sunday.

The thick-set, gap-toothed Borgnine built a reputation playing heavies in early films "From Here to Eternity" and "Bad Day at Black Rock." But he turned that reputation on its as the shy, homely title character "Marty," taking home the Oscar for best actor -- one of four awards film claimed.

1955 Oscars: A year firsts

His manager, Lynda Bensky, said Borgnine died kidney failure Sunday afternoon. His wife, Tova, and children were at his at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, she said.

"It's a sad day," Bensky said. "The industry has lost someone great, the caliber of we will never see again. A true icon. But importantly, the world has lost a sage and loving man taught us all how to 'grow young.' His infectious smile and chuckle the world a happier place.

"Born in Connecticut Italian immigrants, Borgnine -- Ermes Effron Borgnino -- began taking theater classes after serving in Navy during World War II.

He joined the service after graduating from high school the Great Depression and had discharged in 1941, but re-enlisted after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor launched the United States World War II.

He made the move films and then television in 1951, racking up more 200 credits in projects ranging from era of live television drama the children's cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants."

He in the 1962-66 sitcom "McHale's Navy," was one of the original celebrities on the game "The Hollywood Squares" and played William Holden's right-hand-man Sam Peckinpah's revisionist Western "The Wild Bunch." He also was a regular the 1980s
television drama "Airwolf" and a frequent guest on a variety of shows.

In to his Oscar for "Marty," Borgnine was nominated three Emmys -- the most recent in 2009, for a guest spot the hospital drama "ER" -- and won a life achievement from the Screen Actors Guild in 2010.

Tova Borgnine, the actor married in 1973, was his fifth . His previous marriages included a brief 1964 union Broadway legend Ethel Merman that lasted barely a month before the separated.


Adapted from: CNN, July 8, 2012.