SAG Life Achievement Honoree Ernest Borgnine Interview

Current Screen Actors Guild President, Ken Howard, spoke with this year’s SAG life achievement honoree Ernest Borgnine in this 5-part “Actor to Actor” interview. At 93, the actor’s latest role was in last year’s RED as the CIA’s keeper of the records and secrets. Personally, I have a soft spot for Borgnine’s parts in THE POSIEDON ADVENTURE and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.

Throughout the 5-part interview, Borgnine speaks very plainly about the state of motion pictures today, while recalling his love for the Western genre, TV’s McHale’s Navy, his Broadway experiences, his admiration for William Holden and Gary Cooper & the pep talk he received from Spencer Tracy on auditioning for MARTY.

The interview is a nostalgic look at old-school Hollywood when actors made $5,000 a picture as Borgnine says he did for his work in MARTY. His touching performance as the lonely butcher won Borgnine an Academy Award®, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe®. It’s what happened the morning after he won the Academy Award that’s the most telling –  it left Borgnine realizing, “You’re not as always good as you think you are.”

Given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” Borgnine will be presented the award at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which premieres live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT.