Ernest Borgnine has died at the age of 95.  He joined the Navy in 1935, straight out of high school and served through World War II, leaving the service with the rank of gunner’s mate 1st class.  He became an actor, appearing in over 140 movies and winning an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1955 for the movie, Marty.  He is probably best known, however, for his role as Lt.Commander Quentin McHale in McHale’s Navy, a situation comedy about the insubordinate crew of a PT boat in the Pacific during World War II which ran from 1962-1966. Actor and comedian Tim Conway played his second in command in McHale’s Navy. More than thirty years later they would re-unite in 1999 when Borgnine voiced the role of the elderly superhero Mermaid Man in the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants, where Tim Conway provided the voice of Mermaid Man’s sidekick, Barnacle Boy.

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Ernest Borgnine dies at 95; won Oscar for ‘Marty,’ showed comic side in sitcom

The patrol torpedo boat PT 73 in McHale’s Navy was actually PT-694, a 72-foot type II Vosper MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat) built late in World War II, which never went into service. She is a near sister vessel to PT 728, which we posted about last month.

Thanks for Phil Leon for passing along the news.