Ernest Borgnine

As one of my first assignments for Fly Magazine I had the pleasure to photograph Ernest Borgnine. Yes, that Ernest Borgnine, everyone's favorite gap-toothed uncle-turned-grandfather from "McHale's Navy" fame. He was in town shooting the film "Another Harvest Moon" at the state hospital with costars Cybill Shepherd ("Moonlighting"), Piper Laurie, Anne Meara (Ben Stiller's mom), and Doris Roberts (Raymond's mom on "Everyone Loves Raymond") among others.  My niece Elise was visiting and she shares an interest in photography so I brought her along to be my assistant. This was so far my number one experience in photography (it's not every day you get to photograph an Oscar winner). David Onda from Fly interviewed him as I got setup and snapped away the pictures. All the while I was listening to his stories which were all very entertaining. Ernest was nothing short of remarkable. At 91 years he certainly doesn't look it and more impressively doesn't sound it. His memory for details from 50 years earlier and his ability to wind a tale were only outdone by his graciousness. I also have to give some props to David for both conducting a really nice well prepared interview and writting a great article.

Elise and Ernest