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Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino (his Italian parents would "Americanize" their names when he was a boy) in Hamden Connecticut in 1917, and he did not become an actor until he was in his thirties, and he seemed likely to never rise above secondary roles, and yet he became a major star in both movies AND television! He joined the Navy right after graduating high school, and stayed there for ten years, leaving when WWII ended. He decided he would like to act, but for four years he could not rise above mostly minor roles in regional theater. In 1949 he was noticed when he got a minor part on Broadway in Harvey, and two years later he moved to Hollywood, where at first he could only get minor movie and TV roles. He had his first "big" part as sadistic Sgt. Fatso Judson in Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity in 1953, and two years later he was selected to play the lead role in the movie version of Marty (the lead on TV had been played by Rod Steiger). Written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Delbert Mann, Marty is probably the best "little" movie ever made, and it won the Best Picture Oscar, and Borgnine took home the Best Actor Oscar (over four great other performances: Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock, James Dean in East of Eden. James Cagney in Love Me or Leave Me, and Frank Sinatra in The Man With the Golden Arm, all Oscar worthy!). That role and Oscar gave Borgnine a few chances to sometimes be a leading man, although he would mostly play character roles, In 1962 he got another major break when he got the lead in TV's McHale's Navy, playing the straight man to a great ensemble group of wacky comedians, and the show was very successful. Most people assumed he would retire at some point, after a long and distinguished career, but he just keeps on acting! From 1995 to 1997 he played a continuing supporting role in TV's The Single Guy, and from 1999 to 2009 he has supplied the voice for Spongebob Squarepant's hero, Mermaid Man, and throughout the years he has continued to do many movies and TV, including starring in the very final episode of TV's ER. Borgnine has had a pretty wild private life, and has married five times, including one to Katy Jurado, and a legendary bad marriage to Ethel Merman, where they separated when they returned from a brief honeymoon and divorced 32 days after their marriage. His fifth marriage lasted 37 years, and his wife Tova is much seen on TV, pitching a beauty cream. Ernest passed away in late 2012 at the age of 95.

Important Added Info: Note that this still has been personally autographed (signed) by Ernest Borgnine!

Note that this autographed 8x10 is part of a remarkable new collection we have been consigned, and we are auctioning nearly 500 items from this collection in this set of auctions (we will have more from this collection in our next few sets of autograph auctions).
     In the 1970s, our consignor was a high school teacher who taught a film class, and one day a week (and all through the summer) he ran the local movie theater (and he saved all the presskits and one-sheets from the movies the theater showed).
     Starting in the late 1970s, but increasingly greatly in the early 1980s, he hit on the idea of writing to famous celebrities, and enclosing an 8x10 from his collection, and he wrote a literate personalized letter, talking about his work as a film teacher, and discussing his favorite movie by that star.
     He often was able to locate an 8x10 still from his collection that was from a really good movie from that star, or one that had a really good image of that star. In a relatively small number of cases, he did not have a still in his collection to send, so he bought a reproduction from a photo shop, and sent that instead, which is why some of the items that have this notation on them are reproductions.
     He received signed photos back from a good percentage of the people he wrote to, and if the people simply sent him a stock photo back, he did not save it, but if he felt the autograph was genuine, and if they added a personalized note, then he did save them.
     In the late 1980s, he pretty much stopped sending letters and photos, simply because he was just too busy. So this photo (and the vast majority of the other photos we are auctioning for this consignor) were obtained in the mid-1980s, through personal correspondence with this star. This is of course excellent, because back at that time celebrities were not selling their signatures nearly as much, and many of the stars were pretty forgotten and were happy to get letters from people like our consignor!
     He of course does not have any "Certificates of Authenticity", but he only kept ones he felt were surely authentic, and those are the ones we are auctioning. However, bidders can certainly compare the signatures to known examples on the internet to judge for themselves.

As is true of all the signed items we are currently auctioning, we give every buyer 30 days in which to review what they purchased and they can return any item as long as it is within 30 days of the end of the auction. On non-signed items, we give a "lifetime guarantee" on everything we auction, but on signed items, we give the above modified guarantee of 30 days after the auction closes.

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Bruce Hershenson,
306 Washington Avenue, West Plains, MO 65775