I am of course referring to Ernest Borgnine, who is hopefully not best-known for the role of Dominic Santini on the ’80s TV show Airwolf. He passed away Sunday at the age of 95.

As a kid, I knew his work in Airwolf, but I had no idea that he was an Oscar-winning actor who had appeared in more than a few classic ’50s and ’60s films: From Here to Eternity, The Dirty Dozen, and The Wild Bunch, to name a few. Oh, also Marty, which I still haven’t seen.

He was also the foolish (and doomed) Harry Booth in 1979’s The Black Hole, Disney’s attempt to capitalize on Star Wars. It’s not a good movie, except that it is. He played “Cabbie” in 1981’s Escape from New York, which in retrospect I probably should not have watched as a kid.

He apparently received an Emmy nomination at the age of 92 for a guest part on ER. The last role I saw him in was in a rather pretentious film called 11’09″1 September 11. As the name might indicate, the film is a series of vignettes about the September 11 terror attacks, each one by a different director from a different country, and each one exactly nine minutes, eleven seconds, and one frame in length. “Pretentious” might not be a strong enough word for the concept, but the execution was interesting, and Ernest Borgnine’s performance was great. He played an elderly widower, still in denial about his wife’s….you know what, just watch it:

Photo credit: ‘Ernest Borgnine McHale McHale’s Navy 1962’ by Milburn McCarty Public Relations. It was not uncommon for a network, program sponsor or studio to distribute publicity information through either an ad or publicity agency. (ebay itemphoto frontphoto back) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.