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Proustian Memories : Ernest Borgnine, on His Birthday

 Today is Ernest Borgnine's birthday.

This Blogger had just finished an extremely stressful assigment; as a break from stress, he became a gofer on an independent film, THE YOUNG WARRIORS, shot in Canada.

Since he was the oldest gofer in living memory, he became the driver to the lead of the film, Ernest Borgnine.

He was the kindest, funniest guy you ever dealt with, without pretension or crassness or phoniness.

We were shooting in  a very small town outside of Vancouver; at night, he would go food shopping by himself. This Blogger, and a hired local goon shadowed him for safety's sake. That was a waste of time; the  locals were enthralled, and he was patient with their requests for pictures, and autographs.

Naturally, he had great stories about  Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden,Ward Bond, Nicholas Ray, Victor Mature, Susan Hayward, Valerie French,Glenn Ford, Randolph Scott, Burt Lancaster,Gary Cooper, Charles Bronson,Robert Aldrich, Spencer Tracy,John Sturgis,Lee Marvin, Paddy Chayefsky,Rod Steiger, Bette Davis, Debbie Reynolds, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis,Janet Leigh, Alan Ladd, Gina Lollobrigida, Victoria de Sica, Alberto Sordi, Victorio Gassman, Anuck Aimee, Anthony Quinn, Christopher Fry, Arthur Kennedy, John Cassavetes, Silvana Mangano, James Stewart,Peter Finch, Milton Berle, Sir John Mills, Sir Richard Attenborough, Rod Taylor, Kim Novak, Telly Savalas,  Jim Brown, Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Woody Strode, Gene Hackman, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, Keith Carradine, Michael J. Pollard, Ida Lupino, Michael Landon, Burt Reynolds,  Catherine Deneuve, Cliff Robertson, Henry Silva, Sir Laurance Olivier, Michael York, Anthony Burgess, James Mason, Christopher Plummer, Anne Bancroft, Franco Zeffirelli, Muhammad Ali, Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Richard Harris, Art Carney, Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, John Carpenter,Kurt Russell,  and Lee Van Cleef, 

There was a female MUA, a trouble maker, who wanted to ask him about his 32 day marriage to Broadway legend Ethel Merman, but we constrained and restrained her. 

We gofers politely asked him about his OSCAR winning performance in MARTY,and THE DIRTY DOZEN, THE VIKINGS, VERA CRUZ. However,  the film, we religiously wanted to know about was THE WILD BUNCH....they came too late and stayed too long.


THE WILD BUNCH, Directed by Sam Peckinpah, starring William Holden, Ben Johnson, Robert Ryan, Warren Oates, Emilio Fernandez and Ernest Borgnine.

One night Mr. Borgnine bought the gofers dinner; we sat and chatted with him about THE WILD BUNCH. It was as if we were sitting with someone who had been present at the Crucifixion. Us  gofers were that awed.

Mr. Borgnine indulged us.

He told our upturned faces that they, the cast, all the cast and crew had ABSOLUTELY no idea what they were creating.  They thought it was going to be some mash up,  some erratic, dizzy spaghetti Western.

At night, they never saw the dailies, they had heard the whole film was over-the-top, so why bother? Instead, they enjoyed the conviviality of each other's company. He finally translated that-the cast  sat around drinking a lot and never got around to seeing the dailies.

Finally the shoot was over, and they, the cast, went about their business. None of them bothered to even look at what they thought was one of the worst Westerns ever made.

Finally the stars had to re-united for the world premiere at a film festival.  I believe it was somewhere in the West Indies, but that detail is lost in midst.

As the film was being screened,  none of the cast went inside to watch it; they were all so embarrassed. They sat in the press hall,  drinking, preparing their feeble answers as to how they could be in such a turkey.

They drank and drank.

Finally, the press poured in, excited- agitated.

Mr. Borgnine said he steeled himself for the worst.

A French reporter asked the first question to a slightly tipsy William Holden, "Mr. Holden, how do you feel being a part of such a wondrous masterpiece?"

Mr. Borgnine said that they, the cast, all sat back in their chairs as if they had been shot simultaneously.

Holden muttered something, as Ben Johnson started laughing.

Warren Oates sheepishly went up to a beaming, self satisfied Peckinpah and asked for a private screening, so that he could see the masterpiece.

Peckinpah set up the additional screening for the next hour.

The cast sat there, in unison, and watched one of the great Westerns of all time unfold, awe struck.

The moral lesson to Mr. Borgnine of this tale was clear- you learn your humility in so many unique ways.

Mr. Borgnine died at 95.


THE WILD BUNCH, Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, William Holden, and Mr. Ernest Borgnine.

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