Ernest Borgnine Beverly Hills Home For Sale

 

Ernest Borgnine in front of his home in 1969.

The longtime Beverly Hills home of Oscar winning actor Ernest Borgnine is currently for sale at $3.395 million. Borgnine lived in the house for six decades. Pretty impressive when you hear so many other stars constantly buying and selling houses. The home is located at 3055 Lake Glen Drive, in the Beverly Hills Post Office area, on a 1/2 acre lot above Mulholland Drive, and has views of the San Fernando Valley.

The home was designed by architect L.G. Scherer in 1938 with a Country English style. The house has a formal entry hall, large spacious living and family rooms that open up to a swimming pool, a library, office, den, breakfast, room and kitchen. There are six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, plus a one bedroom guesthouse. For more details on the house visit the official real estate listing.

As I've mentioned with other classic Hollywood homes that have gone on the market, I only hope the buyer maintains the integrity of the house. How great would it be to start your day by having breakfast in the same kitchen as a Hollywood icon like Borgnine or doing some reading in the same den?

Click images to enlarge.

The front of Borgnine's home as it appears today.

A view of the swimming pool.

The gated entrance.

The formal entry hall.

Borgnine and wife Tova Traesnaes by the stairwell.

Borgnine with an earlier wife, Donna and their kids:

Sharon, 3, and Cristofer, 3. July 1, 1969.

Borgnine passed away in July at the age of 95. Although it doesn't normally come as a shock if someone dies and they are 95 years old, I was a bit surprised when I heard that Borgnine had died. I had seen him a year earlier at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood when he did a Q&A with TCM host, Ben Mankiewicz, as part of TCM's "Road to Hollywood" series. I have some video clips of Borgnine that day you can see here. Borgnine was so energetic and appeared like one of those guys who still had at least a few more years ahead of him - like a Bob Hope or George Burns. The much younger Mankiewicz even joked that earlier in the day he was having trouble keeping up with Borgnine.

What are your thoughts on Borgnine the man and his home?

Ernest Borgnine (1917-2012)

Showing his range in Marty (1955).

�The trick is not to become somebody else. You become somebody else when you�re in front of the camera or when you�re on stage. There are some people who carry it all the time. That, to me, is not acting. What you�ve gotta do is find out what the writer wrote about and put it into your mind. This is acting. Not going out and researching what the writer has already written. This is crazy!�

Playing with knives in From Here to Eternity (1953). 

�The greatest compliment I ever had in my life was one day, I was talking to Montgomery Clift. We were sitting all by ourselves in an empty studio, and we saw a door open. And a man and a woman walked in. We paid no attention. We went right on talking. And suddenly I was engulfed in these huge arms. And the voice said, �You�re the son of a bitch I wrote about when I wrote that book.� [From Here to Eternity] And it was James Jones himself. And he said to me, �Keep at it, kid. I love what you�re doing.� � (interview with Dan Lybarger)

Playing with pitchforks in Violent Saturday (1955).

�Spencer Tracy was the first actor I�ve seen who could just look down into the dirt and command a scene. He played a setup with Robert Ryan that way. He�s looking down at the road, and then he looks at Ryan at just the precise, right minute. I tell you, Rob could�ve stood on his head and zipped open his fly and the scene would�ve still been Mr. Tracy�s.�

Showing one of his badass faces.

�I hate hippies and dopeheads. Just hate them. I�m glad we sent them off to war. They came back with a sense of responsibility and respect. We should have grabbed the women, given them a bath, put a chastity belt on them, and put them in secretary school.�

Giving Lee Marvin the business in Emperor of the North (1973).

�Where can we find the great actors we had yesteryear, guys like Spencer Tracy and Gary Cooper and Edward G. Robinson? You know, I was talking to Lee Marvin the other day and we agreed that we were the last of a breed. We�re the last who had the opportunity of working with these fine actors. I feel very humble. It makes me feel that I�ve got to try that bit harder.�

Keeping cool on the set of The Wild Bunch (1969).

�Everything I do has a moral to it. Yes, I�ve been in films that have had shootings. I made The Wild Bunch, which was the beginning of the splattering of blood and everything else. But there was a moral behind it.�

My favorite Ernest Borgnine films: The Mob (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953), Vera Cruz (1954), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Violent Saturday (1955), The Vikings (1958), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Ice Station Zebra (1868), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Emperor of the North (1973)

Andy Griffith and Ernest Borgnine Connection

Ernest Borgnine and Andy Griffith

Sadly, earlier this month movie fans lost two more classic Hollywood stars: Andy Griffith on July 3 and Ernest Borgnine on July 8. During their long careers in both films and on television, I'm sure one could find many connections between these two actors. For one, both acted in an adaptation of the story From Here to Eternity. Borgnine played Sergeant 'Fatso' Judson in the 1953 film version and Griffith played General Barney Slater in a six part television mini-series. Both starred in successful 1960s television comedies: Griffith in The Andy Griffith Show and Borgnine in McHale's Navy. But, the one connection I'm thinking of involves Midwest Street on the Warner Bros. studio lot.

Griffith & Myron McCormick in No Time For Sergeants.

In the film No Time For Sergeants (1958) Griffith plays a country bumpkin who gets drafted into the Air Force. At the beginning of the film, Griffith is brought into town and handcuffed because he is considered a draft dodger. The town is Warner Bros. Midwest Street and the location is used as the pick up spot for all the new recruits who are going to be whisked away to the Air Force base.

Borgnine in Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?

Twelve years later Borgnine would be on Midwest Street for the film Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? (1970). In this film Borgnine plays a tough sheriff of a small southern town that is located near an Army base. Midwest Street is used as the location for the southern town and like in No Time For Sergeants, Midwest Street is where the new recruits are picked up to be taken to base. 

I've previously done film location posts for both of these movies. You can see the locations for No Time For Sergeants here and for Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? here.

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? (1970) - Film Locations

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? (1970) is one of those movies I just had to see because of the all-star cast but when I finally did see the film I knew why, despite all the names in the film, nobody ever talks about it. Brian Keith, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, Suzanne Pleshette, Tom Ewell, and Don Ameche headline this parody of the U.S. military, but nothing any one  of these stars does can save this film from feeling long and boring. Made at the height of the Vietnam war, you get the feeling that this movie was supposed to be one of those "message" films but really, the whole movie seems so ridiculous that any intended message gets buried in the clownish story. 

The story is set in a small Southern town that is home to an Army base. The town locals dislike the presence of the military in their community and tension builds between the locals and the military. Col. Flanders (Ameche) hires Officer Nace (Keith) to help improve community relations, but Ernest Borgnine, a sheriff with a chip on his shoulder isn't ready to work with the military on improving relations. Tony Curtis, a loud-mouth, scheming, trouble making Sergeant only makes matters worse and eventually ends up in jail. When his friend Nace comes to break him out using a borrowed tank, the zealous Tom Ewell leads a milita to go to war against the Army.

As much as I disliked the film, I did enjoy noticing that the small town where most of the action takes place, including the final confrontation between the locals and the military, was filmed on the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, specifically on Midwest Street. This area of the lot has most recently appeared in the television show Hart of Dixie filling in for another Southern community and also on the big screen in The Muppets. In The Muppets, Midwest Street is "Smalltown," the town where Jason Segel and Amy Adams live.

Below are comparisons of Midwest Street as it appeared in Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? (1970) and how Midwest Street appears today.

Ernest Borgnine & Suzanne Pleshette in a drug store set.

Looking out from the drug store entrance.

Pleshette leaves the drug store.

Another view looking from the drug store.

Borgnine near the center of Warner Bros. Midwest Street.

Warner Bros. Midwest Street. The same 

chapel stands in the background.

Borgnine walking towards the middle of Midwest Street.

Looking at the center of Midwest Street as it presently appears.

Borgnine stands in front of the drug store.

The drug store facade as it appears today.

Borgnine, Tony Curtis, Brian Keith on Midwest Street.

Looking down Midwest Street.

Curtis drives a bus into Midwest Street to pick up new recruits.

The building on the left is the "Star" theatre building.

Borgnine looks at the military in disgust.

The facades behind Borgnine as they appear today.

The drug store is seen top center.

The same facades today, stripped down.

This next view is pretty cool because the western style facades no longer exist. You can see in the contemporary photo the green hills in the background but the western facades have been demolished and replaced.

The western style facades above no longer exist.

All that is the same are the green hills in the distant background.

Bradford Dillman stands on a jeep parked on Midwest Street.

The facade of the Star theatre as it appears today.

Borgnine in front of the police station.

The police station facade as it appears today.

The next view is another showing more of the western style facades (on the right side) that no longer exist. On the left you will notice the backside of the white chapel building is still there.

The army and the town police go at it on Midwest Street.

Entering Midwest Street from the back.

The backside of the white chapel.

The backdoor to the chapel building has been stripped away.

The tank pulls into Midwest Street. The front side

of the chapel would be a little further to the left.

The same view in front of the chapel is it appears today.

Looking down from the police station.

The police station facade is where the green trim is. This

view has changed quite a bit.

Over ten years prior to Tony Curtis arriving on Midwest Street in a bus to pick up military recruits another film, a very funny military themed comedy from the 1950s, used the same location on the Warner Bros. backlot as the spot to pick up new recruits. Any guesses as to what movie this may be? Come back next week and I'll have a post on the now and then comparisons from this 1950s film. 

Update: January 7, 2012

To see the answer of which 1950s film used Midwest Street as the location to pick up military recruits click here.