Tim Conway to Introduce Tribute to SAG’s 47th Life Achievement Award Recipient Ernest Borgnine

Tim Conway to Introduce Tribute to SAG’s 47th Life Achievement Award Recipient Ernest Borgnine at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®
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SAG Awards® to be Simulcast Sunday, Jan. 30 on TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 26, 2011) – Tim Conway will introduce the tribute to Screen Actors Guild’s 47th Life Achievement Award recipient Ernest Borgnine at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, executive producer and director Jeff Margolis announced today.

Conway joins a growing roster of actors who will honor their colleagues at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards that already includes Scott Bakula, Alec Baldwin, Jeff Bridges, Rosario Dawson, Josh Duhamel, Angie Harmon, Eva Longoria, Cory Monteith, Amy Poehler, Hilary Swank, Betty White and SAG President Ken Howard.

The 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® ceremony will be simulcast live coast-to-coast on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011 at 8 p.m. (ET), 7 p.m. (CT), 6 p.m. (MT) and 5 p.m. (PT) from the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles. An encore presentation will air on TNT at 10 p.m. (ET) 9 p.m. (CT), 8 p.m. (MT) and 7 p.m. (PT). Prior to the televised ceremony, the SAG Honors for television and film stunt ensembles will be announced during the live tnt.tv and tbs.com webcasts from the red carpet which begin at 6 p.m. (ET)/3 p.m. (PT).

Screen Actors Guild is honoring Ernest Borgnine for his career achievement and humanitarian accomplishments.  Past recipients of SAG’s Life Achievement Award include Betty White, James Earl Jones, Charles Durning, Julie Andrews, Shirley Temple Black, James Garner, Karl Malden, Clint Eastwood, Edward Asner, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, Angela Lansbury, Robert Redford and George Burns.
 
Film and television legends Borgnine and Conway first starred together in the 1960’s during the popular World War II sitcom, “McHale’s Navy.” Conway played Ensign Charles Parker, second in command to Borgnine’s lead character, Quinton McHale. During the show, the two actors discovered their great on-and-off screen chemistry, and Borgnine became a mentor and close friend to Conway. Currently, the two actors have reunited in recurring voice-over roles on Nickelodeon’s smash hit series “SpongeBob SquarePants,” where Conway’s character “Barnacle Boy” serves as sidekick to Borgnine’s semi-retired aquatic superhero “Mermaid Man.” 

Aside from his role in “SpongeBob SquarePants,” six-time Emmy Award-winning actor, writer and producer Tim Conway is currently the lead in “Hermie the Caterpillar” children’s videos. A television pioneer, Conway’s work on the “The Steve Allen Show” and his award-winning role on groundbreaking series “The Carol Burnett Show” helped inspire legions of variety and sketch comedy actors. His iconic roles such as “slow old man” and “Mr. Tudball” were often responsible for making fellow performers Burnett and Harvey Korman laugh out loud during sketches, while he remained in character.  Conway’s outstanding work as a writer and actor on “Carol Burnett” was recognized with four Emmy statues and a Golden Globe.  He also received multiple nominations from the Emmys, the WGA and a Golden Globe nod.

More recently, Conway won an Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy for his appearance on “30 Rock” in 2008 and guest starred in 2010 on TV Land series “Hot In Cleveland,” which is nominated for two SAG Awards this year in the Best Comedy Ensemble and Female Comedy Lead Performance categories. 

On the big screen, some of Conway’s most memorable films include “The Apple Dumpling Gang” (1975), “The World’s Greatest Athlete” (1976) and “The Shaggy DA” (1976). 

Ernest Borgnine has been the recipient of industry recognition, critical praise and audience adulation throughout his career.  He first drew the public eye in 1953 with his portrayal of the vicious Sergeant “Fatso” Judson, who beat Frank Sinatra’s Maggio to a pulpy death in the Oscar®-winning film “From Here to Eternity.”  He was memorable as one of the thugs who threatened a one-armed Spencer Tracy in “Bad Day at Black Rock,” then did a 180-degree turn in 1955, starring for director Delbert Mann and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky as the title character in what was to be the year’s best picture Oscar winner, “Marty.” His touching performance as the lonely butcher won Borgnine an Academy Award®, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe®. He would receive a second Golden Globe nomination some 52 years later for the title role in the telefilm “A Grandpa for Christmas” and an Independent Spirit Award nomination in 1989 for his Mafia boss in “Spike of Bensonhurst.”

During the ‘50s, Borgnine’s performance in the 1962-66 broad ensemble comedy “McHale’s Navy” cemented his presence as a household name and earned Borgnine his first Emmy® nomination in 1963. The Television Academy would again nominate Borgnine in 1980 for his portrait of World War I soldier Stanislaus Katczinsky in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of “All Quiet on the Western Front” and in 2009 for his guest role as a devoted husband coming to terms with his wife’s imminent death in the final episode of “ER.”

Borgnine received a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1999 for his voice work as Carface in the animated “All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series” and the same year began his run as the voice of Mermaid Man in the Nickelodeon series “SpongeBob SquarePants,” bringing him a whole new legion of young fans. He’s also played an animated version of himself on “The Simpsons.”

Borgnine’s staggering catalog of over 200 motion pictures includes such classics as “Johnny Guitar,” starring Joan Crawford; “Vera Cruz,” with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster; “The Catered Affair,” opposite Bette Davis; legendary ensemble pieces like Robert Aldrich’s “The Dirty Dozen” and Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch”; and large-scale productions like “The Vikings,” “Torpedo Run,” “Emperor of the North,” “Ice Station Zebra,” “Flight Of The Phoenix,” “Escape from New York” and “The Poseidon Adventure.” He portrayed controversial FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover in the 1983 telefilm “Blood Feud” and again in the feature “Hoover,” which he also executive produced.  He also played real-life boxing coach Angelo Dundee opposite Muhammad Ali (as himself) in “The Greatest.” His latest film “Red,” starring Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Richard Dreyfuss and Brian Cox, opens in October.

Besides “McHale’s Navy,” Borgnine’s television credits include starring as veteran aircraft owner Dominic Santini “Airwolf” (1984-86), and as doorman Manny Cordoba in “The Single Guy” (1995-97). Among his telefilms and miniseries are “Jesus of Nazareth;” “The Trail to Hope Rose,” for which, at age 87, he drove a team of horses and was honored with the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame; and last year’s “Wishing Well.” He had a recurring role on “The Commish” and guest starred in numerous series, including “JAG,” “Early Edition,” “Walker, Texas Ranger,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “Touched By An Angel,” “7th Heaven,” “Family Law” and “The District.”  He even appeared in the first “Center Square” in the “Hollywood Squares” when the game show premiered in 1965.

Borgnine served on Screen Actors Guild’s Board of Directors from April to November 1962 and again from November 1974 to November 1977.

Borgnine’s 2008 autobiography, “Ernie” was a “New York Times” bestseller. 

The 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild Awards®, LLC. For more information about the SAG Awards, SAG, TNT and TBS visit sagawards.org/about.

Contact: Tosha Whitten Griggs
twgriggs@sagawards.org
(310) 235-1030 x237