Ernest Borgnine was born January 24, 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut. Ernie joined the Navy in 1935 right after high school and served in WWII as a gunner’s mate first class on an anti-submarine warfare ship in the Atlantic theater. He returned home and, at the suggestion of his mother, began to pursue a career in acting. His first Broadway appearance was as a nurse in the play Harvey. After appearing as a villain on the Captain Video show and several other TV shows, he moved to Hollywood where in 1953 he got his first big break as Sgt. Judson in From Here To Eternity. Two years later he won an Oscar for his starring role in Marty. Borgnine’s career continued right up until his death in 2012 in a variety of westerns, action films, dramas and comedies and as the voice of Mermaid Man on Spongebob Squarepants.