Very few actors deserve the epithet of legend. But Ernest Borgnine – who turns 95 today – must be one of them.

Ernie first came to my attention in Bad Day At Black Rock in 1953. He was utterly despicable as a redneck small-town racist threatening one-armed stranger Spencer Tracy, even pouring an entire bottle of ketchup over his meal. Thankfully, Tracy then uses Kung Fu and sends Borgnine flying. In a film of memorable bad guys, including such compelling actors as Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan, Borgnine steals the show.  By the time the Borgnine character is felled you hate him so much you could almost apply a supererogatory kick in the head. Which, I guess, proves what a great actor he is.

Borgnine tried to convince audiences he was a good guy in Marty – as a gentle, lonely butcher who has almost given up on finding love – and it was such an impressive performance that he won the Oscar. It was also an affecting film because he and Betsy Blair were "ordinary folk", not beautiful people, but simply two people trying to find a meaning to their lives. Perhaps present day Hollywood film-makers could take note!!!

But audiences weren't "fooled" by Borgnine's role as a good guy. He was still at his most effective as a baddie, bullying Frank Sinatra in From Here to Eternity and giving Gene Hackman a hard time in The Poseidon Adventure.

A particularly memorable later role was as a vicious train guard determined not to let hobo Lee Marvin have a free ride in Emperor of the North Pole. He robbed a bank with Bette Davis in Bunny O'Hare, faced a splendidly romantic death in The Wild Bunch, was the mean general who sent the Dirty Dozen on their mission and was a longstanding cast member of 1980s TV series Airwolf when he was a youngster of about 65!

Borgnine's career has now spanned well over half a century. He has outlived nearly all his contemporaries and is still very lucid and STILL acting. A real star in a business that has devalued the meaning of the word.

Happy Birthday, Ernie!