(CNN) — Film and television actor Ernest Borgnine, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a shy, homely butcher in 1955’s “Marty,” has died at age 95, his manager said Sunday.
The thick-set, gap-toothed Borgnine began taking theater classes after serving in the Navy during World War II, and made the move to film in 1951. He built a reputation for playing heavies in his early films, but turned that reputation on its head as the lovelorn title character in “Marty.”
Borgnine went on to television stardom in the 1960s as the lead character in the comedy “McHale’s Navy” and as one of the original celebrities on the game show “The Hollywood Squares.” He was still making movies and doing television appearances less than a year before his death.
CNN’s Douglas Hyde contributed to this report.
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