Ernest Borgnine, a Great Cowboy.

I've been corresponding with a cowboy about western movies and western actors. We pretty much both vote for John Wayne as our favorite, but this past week we wrote back and forth about Ernest Borgnine. I've met Mr. Borgnine a couple of times, once when he was touring the country in his big motor home and stopped by a shop I ran, then again a few years ago when he presented Dusty Richards with his Wrangler Award at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. That was a star-studded event and I'd been told that Tom Selleck would be there, that's why I supported my good friend, Dusty, by buying that $150 a plate dinner. Sorry Dusty, it was Tom drove me to lose those 20 pounds. But alas, the big thrill of my evening, besides seeing Dusty win the Wrangler, was seeing Ernest Borgnine again. His smile made the evening.


This blog is dedicated to all things western, and what's better than an Ernest Borgnine western movie. The Wild Bunch is one of my favorites because it also starred William Holden. The movie opens with a group of aging outlaw's final score, a bank robbery. It's a rip roaring good action movie. Kind of violent for its time, but pretty tame now.

All in all, Ernest Borgnine didn't make a Searchers quality western, but actually there aren't too many of those. What Borgnine did in his career is have fun and keep working. And really, every western is worth watching. They show us another time and another culture and most of us baby boomers have at one time or another dreamed of being a cowboy.