Evening star., 1955-04-25

FdISO III rTOu d6T6 10 6teIL
pennant prospects. He's a big
large quick laugh which makes
him look like an amiable gar
goyle on a Roman fountain. Why
Roman? Well. Ernie is an Italian,
and face like his on a Moscow
fountain might make the people
suspicious about their own lack
Of gayety
Ernie who has been killing
people in movies since two pic
lures before Eternity" is vir-
tually ecstatic to find himself a
hero in Marty" which makes
him 1855 best bet for an
Academy award.
He's Marty's type. or vice
versa; surprised at the great
things that are happening to
him, grateful as a kid would be
If every day were Christmas,
completely in love with life and,
quite especially. with his in-laws
Three years ago when life
was actor-dark (this is blacker
than midnight), he might have
gone into air conditioning. but
for them. The in-laws kept the
Borgnines going. ever so tact
fully, between jobs.
IT used to think of air con-
ditioning as a good field" Ernie
says. II still do, but now I guess
I'll buy it instead of installing
It,"
Ernie. the hottest actor in the
profession right now, got into
acting pretty much the way
Marty, in the movie, got into
marriage-via his mothers sug-
gestion. ....
After the war, back in his
home town of New Haven,
Conn. he was unhappy with the
jobs he was getting as a la
borer, on vegetable trucks. etc
"Why don't you think of act
ing?" his mother asked. remem-
bering what a clown Ernie had
been in a Boy Scout circus be-
fore the war
With GI bill tuition money
available, Ernie went over to
Yale. cultural neighbor Of the
Borgnines and other New Haven
people. Yale told him about its
drama school, including the lit
erature, philosophy. history Of
the theater. psychology. and
other courses. Ernie. who just
wanted to learn to act, decided
to go instead to the Randall
school of the drama at Hartford.
It was less oblique in it's ap-
hurry.
At Randall, he was a big,
quiet, easy going type until one
day the students laughed when
he pronounced giant" as "gint."
He decided right then and there
to be Randall's best actor and.
although he would be the last
to say so, he clearly has made it.
X
Ernie, who is now building a
house at Van Nuys, Calf, for
his wife and the first young
Borgnine, really got off the
ground as an actor at Abingdon,
Va, the Barter Theater. He went
there in 1948 without a job,
accompanied by friend who
had one.
Il stayed four and one-half /
years." Ernie says, while the
other guy stayed only a day"
There. he played everything |
from Shakespeare to Tennessee |
Williams. during the period when
Bob Porterf1eld's Theater was at |
its peak in squirting talent into |
fame-Gregory Pecks, Borgnines
and others.
~ u y II II
4 Ernie, an actor who comes
equipped with faith (even in
air conditioning, if necessary.
saw it crystallized in his "Fatso"
role.
/. II hadn't the slightest notion |
Of how I was to get it, but the I
minute I read the book. I knew
the part was for me-" he says, ,
1T was. just like that"
His marriage was like that.
too. He met his wife in Navy |
hospital in Brooklyn during the
war. knew she was the girl for
him at once, and never doubted
it for an instant afterward even
when religious differences |
cropped up. These delayed the |
wedding but only until Ernie
went to her one day and said,
81 love you and you love me,
and there is nothing we cannot |
solve between U.S."
He was right about that, as
about the Fatso role later.
For all his exploding fame.