Great Circus Parade Star Passes away.

erniebigimage, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr. Ernest Borgnine, who won an Oscar for his touching performance as the lonely butcher looking for love in the 1955 movie "Marty" but who became Milwaukee's favorite clown for his many appearances leading the Great Circus Parade, died Sunday. He was 95. He died of renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with his wife, Tova, and children at his side, according to his longtime spokesman, Harry Flynn. "We've lost a good friend," Jack McKeithan, the co-chair of the circus parade, said Sunday. "He only missed one year because he had to do filming on location, but his love of this community never changed." Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Sunday: "Ernie loved Milwaukee. He was generous with his time and gracious to his fans. In return, Milwaukeeans loved Ernie. He will be missed from here to eternity." Burly, with a gap in his front teeth, Borgnine spent decades on TV and in the movies playing good guys and bad guys. In the 1960s, he became known for the TV comedy "McHale's Navy," where he played a PT boat skipper, and more recently he was the voice of Mermaid Man on "SpongeBob SquarePants." In the 1950s he played the notable villain Fatso Judson, who beat Frank Sinatra to death in "From Here to Eternity." He also played heavies in the films "Bad Day at Black Rock," "Johnny Guitar" and "Demetrius and the Gladiators." And he appeared in "The Dirty Dozen," "The Wild Bunch" and "The Bunch Adventure." In 1973 he appeared in the TV movie "Portrait: Legend in Granite: The Vince Lombardi Story ." But it was his role in the low-budget movie "Marty," based on a TV play by Paddy Chayefsky, that won Borgnine an Academy Award. For that role, Borgnine also received a Golden Globe and awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.