Ernest Borgnine 1917 - 2012

Ernest Borgnine, who died Sunday at the age of 95, was an everyman star, but not the kind Hollywood ever got used to. The studios' idea of an Average Guy was someone like Jimmy Stewart, not a hulking middle-aged man with bushy eyebrows and gap-toothed grin. This was a heavy, right? The sadist who beats Frank Sinatra to death in "From Here to Eternity," the small-town bully jiu-jitsued by one-armed Spencer Tracy in "Bad Day at Black Rock," the untrustworthy officer in "The Dirty Dozen" (a case of miscasting -- Borgnine was an enlisted man if anything). Had the actor come to fame before World War II, he would have been just another goon in the background.Link